This Day, That Year

Item from Dec 12, 1990, in China Daily: Chinese zoologists are offering a unique Christmas gift to wildlifelovers by successfully breeding and raising — for the first time in the world — giant panda twins in the Chengdu Zoo in Sichuan province.

Their birth through artificial insemination and breeding by scientists and workers at the Chengdu Zoo and the Chengdu Research Base of Giant Panda Breeding, marked a breakthrough in the research and protection of the rare animal.

Since the Chengdu Research Base of Giant Panda Breeding was set up in Sichuan province in 1987, with six hungry and sick pandas rescued from the wild, the base has established the world’s biggest captive breeding population, with 176 pandas, as of last year.

It focuses on the research, breeding and conservation of giant pandas.

Pandas are an endangered species due to extremely low reproductive rates in the wild. In captivity, they often give birth to twins and sometimes even triplets.

In June, a female panda gave birth to the “pigeon” first pair (one male, one female) this year in the Chengdu research base.

Thanks to the country’s efforts in panda breeding and protection, it was estimated that there were 1,864 wild pandas and 375 captive pandas worldwide as of the end of 2013, according to the country’s fourth panda cen- sus. During 2000 and 2002, the number was less than 1,600 wild pandas and 164 captive ones.

The International Union for Conservation of Nature said last year that the giant panda had been downgraded from “endangered” to “vulnerable” on a global list of species at risk of extinction, saying evidence from national surveys indicated the previous population decline had been reversed.

However, the captive stock lacks genetic diversity. China plans to improve the wild panda population by creating a giant panda national park, releasing more of the bears into the wild, and furthering scientific research.

Covering 27,100 square kilometers and spanning parts of Sichuan, Gansu and Shaanxi provinces, the park will be directly run and funded by the central government.