China will establish a breeding base for giant pandas in northwest China's Shaanxi Province in another effort to save the highly endangered species from extinction.

The base will be located at the Shaanxi Salvage and Breeding Research Center for Endangered Wild Animals in Zhouzhi County on the northern side of the Qinling Mountains, said Wang Wanyun, an official with the Shaanxi Provincial forestry Department.

Over the past two years, the center has artificially bred three giant pandas and participated in more than 20 panda rescue missions in the wild.

Wang said that the base will contribute more to the research and breeding of giant pandas as well as to their training before their release in the wild.

Giant pandas are notoriously unproductive. There are only about1,500 of the much-loved black and white creatures left in the wild in China's Sichuan, Shaanxi and Gansu provinces, and the giant pandas living in the Qinling have been separated geographically for 50,000 years from those in Sichuan, experts said.

"The giant panda in Qinling is a more endangered sub-species of giant pandas," the official said.

A recent survey indicated that the number of giant pandas roaming in the wild of Shaanxi has reached 340 thanks to effective protection measures.
 
(Xinhua News Agency October 4, 2005)