World's largest panda breeding centre underway in China
The world's largest panda breeding centre is being built in southwest China, an official at the country's biggest sanctuary for the notoriously sex-shy animals said on Tuesday.
By Agencies |
BEIJING: The world's largest panda breeding centre is being built in southwest China, an official at the country's biggest sanctuary for the notoriously sex-shy animals said on Tuesday.
The centre will be an extension to current facilities at the Wolong Nature Reserve in Sichuan province, Zhang Hemin, a reserve official, told the media.
"It will be the world's largest panda research centre based on its area and functions," Zhang said. "The first period of construction will be finished by the end of this year."
Besides pens for feeding and breeding, the base will also include a 19,400-square-metre (210,000-square-foot) playground, Xinhua news agency said.
Pandas, one of the world's most endangered species, are a rare national treasure in China.
They are notoriously poor breeders, and experts in China are desperately trying to make the creatures mate to ensure their survival, using measures as extreme as panda pornography or rigorous "sexercises."
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In one of the exercises, male pandas are made to walk on their two legs to strengthen their pelvic and hip muscles, earlier reports said. As of November last year, China had 239 giant pandas in captivity, with another 27 living outside the country. About 1,590 more pandas are thought to be living in the wild.
By the end of 2007, Wolong Nature Reserve, which spans 2,000 square kilometres, had bred 130 captive pandas from an original 10, the state-run China Daily said.
The new breeding centre will be able to house about 200 pandas, according to the media.
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