Four-year-old Hua Mei, whose name means "China-America," is the
first foreign-born panda
to return to its ancestral homeland. She arrived in Sichuan
Province in February from California's San Diego Zoo, where she was
born to two pandas on loan from China.
Chinese veterinarians, concerned that she had little knowledge
of sex after living only in captivity, showed her videos of mating
pandas to prepare her for a series of "blind dates."
That education appears to have paid off. Hua Mei became pregnant
by natural means and is due in September, the Beijing Morning Post
reported, quoting researchers at the Wolong Giant Panda Protection
Center in southwestern China.
China has poured considerable resources into protecting the
giant panda, its unofficial mascot. While the panda population has
risen, the animal remains endangered by heavy logging of its
habitats. Also, groups of pandas live far from each other in widely
scattered preserves, making breeding more difficult.
The State Administration of Forestry reported last week that the
number of pandas in the wild in China has jumped by more than 40
percent, to 1,590, according to a four-year survey it conducted
jointly with the World Wildlife Fund. However, the WWF cautioned
that the spike may be attributable to more reliable surveying
methods and not necessarily to real growth in the panda
population.
(China Daily/Agencies June 17, 2004)