For the first time, China will release artificially bred giant pandas back to nature in 2005, according to Zhang Hemin, director of the Wolong Giant Panda Protection Research Center in southwest China’s Sichuan Province.

Experts predict that this represents a major step towards returning one of the most endangered animals in the world to their natural habitat.

Upon the completion of the second phase of the Giant Panda Park next year, some 40-50 artificially bred giant pandas will live in the semi-natural habitat, which is very close to the real thing, said Zhang.

“Building the semi-natural habitat aims at enabling giant pandas to gain the capabilities to survive in the wild and finally develop hereditary varieties of this endangered species,” he said.

Zhang said the first phase of the Giant Panda Park recently went into operation and more than 10 giant pandas are living in the park.

He stressed that the nature reserve would provide a natural protective screen for the released giant panda to survive and proliferate. This means that the released pandas in 2005 will still live within the Wolong Nature Reserve.

It is reported that there are less than 1,000 giant pandas in the world, 40 percent distributed in natural reserves and about 110 artificially bred. Experts said that most of giant pandas have lost their wild nature, and they have difficulty in natural mating.

(www.china.org.cn 09/05/2001)