A mature giant panda was rescued by local farmers on Thursday when it wandered onto farmland in Jiangyou in southwest China's Sichuan Province, according to the Xinhua News Agency.

Zhang Kaiguo, a farmer of Yongxing Village of Xiping Township in Jiangyou, found the wild giant panda alone on his farmland on Thursday morning.

He gathered some villagers and informed the local government.

In the afternoon, experts from the Wolong Nature Reserve came and brought the panda back to the reserve after giving it two injections of an anesthetic.

Baby giant pandas were seen in the past in the village, which is blessed with bamboo, a major food source for the rare animal.

But why the giant panda acted alone and entered the village is still puzzling experts, who believe that, generally speaking, giant pandas leave their flocks only when they are ill.

Whether the rescued giant panda was ill remains unknown.

Last year 16 giant pandas survived birth in captivity in China, bringing the total number of the world's captivity pandas to 160, Xinhua reported.

Nineteen baby pandas were born via natural or artificial insemination in China's breeding bases last autumn and 16 survived, the Giant Panda Breeding Technology Committee based in Chengdu, capital of Sichuan Province said on Wednesday.

According to convention, pandas are not counted until they are six months old, researchers say.

There are 160 giant pandas raised in an artificial environment worldwide, two-thirds of which are living at the Wolong Giant Panda Breeding and Research Center and Chengdu Giant Panda Breeding and Research Base in Sichuan.

All of the pandas belong to China except seven, including three from Mexico, two from Japan and one each from Germany and the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, said Zhang.

The Chicago Zoo in the United States was the earliest zoo to breed giant pandas. It received a panda from China named "Su-Lin" in 1936. China began artificial breeding in Beibei Park in Sichuan's Chongqing in 1939.

China has made remarkable progress in breeding giant pandas since the 1990s. Nine were born in 2000, 12 were born in 2001, and 10 were born in 2002.

As one of the most ancient and endangered species in the world, the number of wild giant pandas is estimated at around 1,000, most living in the high mountains around the Sichuan Basin.

(China Daily March 13, 2004)