Six pandas leave quake-hit Wolong because of foodshortage and damaged shelters

Source: Xinhua | 05-23-2008 21:36

CHENGDU, May 23 (Xinhua) -- Six pandas left Friday a major panda base in Wolong, southwest China's Sichuan Province, because of damaged shelters and food shortages after the May 12 earthquake, a local forestry official said.

The pandas were taken by trucks from China Giant Panda Protection and Research Center to Ya'an, another base less affected by the tremor, said Xiong Beirong, an official with the Sichuan provincial forestry bureau.

The latest evacuees brought to 14 the number of pandas trucked out of the Wolong center, only 30 kilometers from the epicenter of the May 12 earthquake, measuring 8.0 on the Richter scale.

Eight other pandas left on May 18 for the Chengdu Research Base of Giant Panda Breeding. They will be airlifted by China Southern Airlines (CSA) to Beijing, where they will stay at the Beijing Zoo, Saturday, said Wolong director Zhang Hemin.

Liu Shaoyong, general manager of CSA, said the pandas were scheduled to leave Chengdu at 3 p.m. Saturday. They will travel on a Boeing 747-700 cargo plane, along with bamboo (their usual food) and water.

Before the earthquake, the center kept 53 pandas. Two were injured and six disappeared after the quake, but four later returned.

Staff are scrambling to get enough food for the remaining pandas.

"There is enough water now, but food is still a major problem. The pandas are in urgent need of bamboos and apples," Xiong Beirong said.

She said center staff had repaired some of the damaged panda shelters after the earthquake, but they collapsed again in strong after-shocks.

The supply of bamboo was suspended as residents, struggling to cope with their own losses, stopped providing bamboo for the pandas.

After the earthquake, tons of bamboo shoots, apples, soybeans, eggs, milk powder and medicines were brought to the center, but the supplies could only last about a week, she said.

There are about 1,590 pandas living in the wild in China, mostly in Sichuan and the northwestern provinces of Shaanxi and Gansu. Another 180 have been bred in captivity.

Editor:Zhang Ning