Panda cubs ring in New Year early
Print Edition
AS millions of Chinese head home for the Spring Festival, a dozen panda cubs are having a relaxing day, having already celebrated the Chinese Lunar New Year at a breeding center in southwest China.
The China Conservation and Research Center for the Giant Panda, the world’s largest artificial breeding center for the rare species, held a special New Year greeting ceremony yesterday at its base in Ya’an, Sichuan Province, for pandas born in 2015.
At a panda kindergarten at the Bifeng Gorge base, cubs between 5 and 7 months were put at a playground with a wooden stand decorated with traditional new year blessing items such as red Chinese knots for good luck and gold ingots for wealth. The cubs climbed up on the stand and played with monkey dolls, too.
“On behalf of the panda population, we wish all the people a happy Year of the Monkey,” said Heng Yi, the center’s publicity officer, adding that the ceremony was also intended to improve public awareness of environmental protection.
Luo Bo, deputy chief of the center’s animal management department, said the ceremony was also an opportunity to provide physical training for the cubs.
“They grow very fast at their age now and need more physical practice to improve their strength and fitness,” said Luo.
A total of 26 pandas were born in 2015, including nine pairs of twins and one born to Mei Xiang at Washington’s Smithsonian National Zoo in the US. A record 23 cubs survived, the center said.
With the new cubs, the center now has 218 pandas. The previous record was set in 2013, with 20 panda cubs joining the population in a year.
Heng attributed the baby boom to better breeding techniques, frequent cooperation with foreign zoos and a bigger “talent pool” for the annual breeding program.
“Over the past two decades, we have seen a steady growth of pandas bred in our center, meaning we have more options when selecting healthy and biologically suitable candidates for our breeding program,” said Heng.
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