Endangered panda crosses 1,000 mark

Endangered panda crosses 1,000 mark
PRESS TRUST OF INDIA

BEIJING, FEB 2: The number of giant pandas, one of the most endangered species in the world, has crossed the 1,000-mark in China, an official newspaper reported today.

According to the latest state forestry administration's figures, by the end of last year, the number of giant pandas raised in captivity in China had surpassed 110, with captive pandas giving birth to 20 cubs, 18 of which are alive.

In western China's Sichuan-based Wolong Giant Panda Research Centre, 12 cubs were born and only one died, the China Daily

quoted senior forestry officials as saying.

According to official sources, the low mortality rate is a new record.

A giant panda gives birth to only one or two babies a year. Many new-born cubs are often abandoned by the mother panda if she cannot feed or take care of two cubs at once, experts say.

The increase in the giant panda population is encouraging for China's plans to strengthen wild animal and plant protection, speed up construction of nature reserves and bolster wetlands preservation in 2001.

Meanwhile, in the run-up to the world wetlands day, which falls today, the Chief of the department's nature reserves management division, Yan Xun said wetlands are ecologically and economically important, but China is not doingenough to protect them in the face of reckless development.

China has 1629.38 million acres of wetlands, amounting to 10 per cent the global total, Yan informed.

At the end of 2000, China had 1,276 nature reserves, amounting to 303.93 million acres or 12.44 per cent of the country's total land mass.