China to Evacuate Pandas From Quake-Hit Reserve

June 25, 2008

CHINA: June 25, 2008

BEIJING - All the pandas still in a major breeding base in quake-devastated southwest China will be temporarily evacuated because of threats from post-quake hazards, local media reported on Tuesday.

Some of the pandas kept in enclosures at the Hetaoping Research and Conservation Centre in the mountainous Wolong nature reserve would be moved to nearby breeding centres, and others would be moved to temporary homes far away in China's east and south, the report in the Chengdu Business News said. The decision to evacuate came after experts concluded the mountainous terrain in Sichuan province was still too hazardous for the rare bears and their keepers, said the report, which was also circulated on local news websites. "The threats to safety from geological hazards in the Hetaoping Centre's location are very large," the report said, citing the experts. "The pandas raised in enclosures at Hetaoping will all be temporarily dispersed until the new Wolong panda breeding centre is built." The fate of the pandas has become an addendum to the human death and devastation left by the May 12 quake, which killed nearly 70,000 with many thousands still missing and likely dead. Landslides and other quake-triggered hazards remain a big threat. At least eight percent of the endangered pandas' habitat was destroyed, the official Xinhua news agency said earlier this month. Only 1,590 pandas live in the wild, all in China, and about 1,400 were in the part of the southwestern province of Sichuan that was rocked by the May 12 earthquake. Thirteen of the great pandas at Hetaoping had already been moved to another panda-keeping centre at Ya'an in Sichuan, which is preparing to receive another 27 adults and cubs, the report said. Another 19 pandas would be moved to a breeding and research centre in Chengdu, the provincial capital of Sichuan, a panda research centre in China's east, and a zoo in the south. Seven cubs born last year will be kept in safe places inside the Wolong reserve. Building the new breeding centre there would take two to three years, the report said. (Reporting by Chris Buckley; Editing by Nick Macfie)

REUTERS NEWS SERVICE