Chinese zoologists have called for urgent efforts to rescue and
protect a newly identified subspecies of giant pandas living in the
Qinling Mountains in north China's Shaanxi
Province.
Zoologists with the Shaanxi Provincial Forestry Bureau (SPFB)
said that the Qinling pandas are more critically endangered than
those living in the southwestern province of Sichuan,
a major habitat of the rare creatures.
The number of Qinling pandas is estimated at just 300, while
more than 1,300 non-Qinling pandas live elsewhere in China.
Wang Wanyun, chief of the Wild Animals Protection Section of the
SPFB, said that the bureau would draft policies for protecting
Qinling pandas and would establish research and artificial breeding
centers.
A research group headed by Professor Fang Shengguo of the
prestigious Zhejiang
University in east China recently compared the pandas living in
Sichuan Province and the Qinling Mountains. They concluded that the
two subspecies have lived in different geographical areas for at
least 50,000 years.
Qinling pandas have smaller skeletons and larger molars than
their Sichuan cousins, according to Fang. Also, the Qinling pandas
have dark brown spots on the chest and brown hair on the belly,
while Sichuan pandas have black spots on the chest and white hair
on the belly.
Wang Wanyun said that while all pandas need protection, the
small number of Qinling pandas puts them at greater risk.
Giant pandas are considered a national treasure of China. About
1,590 giant pandas live in the wild, mostly in the high mountains
around the Sichuan Basin, and 160 live in captivity.
The central and provincial governments have invested 160 million
yuan (US$19.3 million) into panda protection programs since 1992.
China built its first natural preserve for giant pandas and began
to ban poaching in the 1950s. The pandas have been under state
protection since 1962.
(Xinhua News Agency February 17, 2005)