A new lease of life for the giant panda

To observers they appear slow, lazy and even a little stupid. But they also have an unmistakable charm which has made the Giant Panda China's most cherished natural treasure. And at this research base in lush southwestern China visitors are taught how to guarantee the species will still be alive tomorrow.

For China it is a front-and-centre issue. The nation is charging ahead with development that has left a trail of ecological destruction in its wake.

Rivers clogged with pollution, dirty skies, and deforestation have plagued the nation since economic reforms in the eighties. The delicate environmental conditions needed for the survival of the shy panda are still under threat today.

But the fifty-five furry residents that share the 600 bamboo-studded acres of the Chengdu Giant Panda Breeding Research Base are well protected from man-made threats. Moreover, they are the key to future protection.

One panda holds her tiny pink cub close - she is still recovering from giving birth just a few hours earlier. The new-born cub brought the number of new residents at the base to 7 for last year.

Pandas in the wild are rebounding from the brink of extinction, but they are not yet out of the woods, in large part because of great difficulties in producing cubs.

Artificial insemination at research bases like this one is seen as an answer to shrinking numbers.

But experts can attest that it is extremely hard to breed giant pandas in captivity.

Females only ovulate once a year, with a slim 24 to 48 hour window for breeding when artificial reproduction methods are usually adopted. Infant mortality is also high.

Huang Xingming sits in front of a close circuit TV monitor while he is on duty - cameras are trained on the 55 resident pandas 24 hours a day.

But his particular concern are the vulnerable new-born cubs that must be watched closely around the clock. When he gets off work for the day, another of the research staff will take his place at the monitor.

"One of the key issues is whether the panda mother can actually take care of the cub after it is born, for example pick it up and hold it to keep it warm. And also whether she is able to nurse it. So these are all key issues. Also, the 7th, 15th and 24th days after birth are all critical days. After they have passed there is pretty much 100 percent guarantee the cub will survive," said Huang Xingming, Director of Animal Management at the base.

Besides the breeding programme, the base also works for the survival of the species by educating the community.

Unlike other panda reserves in China it is completely open to tourism and during the summer holiday hosts a steady stream of young students for training in conservation.

Sarah Bexell heads the panda base's education programmes. Today she is herding a gaggle of "young zoologists" - children from a nearby primary school who will be taken through the steps of animal observation.

They stand with clipboard in hand and watch two pandas chew through a pile of bamboo while trying some simple data collection. Along the way Bexell with drill them with information about the region's striking biodiversity, and why it is vital to protect it.

She says that what she does goes well beyond summer camp fun for children.

"Scientists are predicting that large numbers of the megafauna - which is the large, beautiful animals that we all know and recognise - will be gone in the next ten to twenty years. And so for us a lot of our job is just educating people on the critical timeframe that we have in order to try to protect as many animals as we can," said Sarah Bexell.

The giant panda is found only in China. Today an estimated 1,600 wild pandas live in nature reserves in Sichuan, Gansu and Shaanxi provinces.

Bureau Report