The endangered panda is revered as a kind of national mascot in China. About 1,590 pandas live in the wild, mostly in Sichuan and the neighboring province of Shaanxi. Another 180 have been bred in captivity.
The nature reserve was heavily damaged by the quake, which was centered just 20 miles (30 kilometers) away in the heart of Sichuan province's mountainous panda country.
Five Wolong staff members were killed in the quake. Most staffers, tourists and pandas were outside at the time.
Nearly 70,000 people were killed, and more than 5 million were left homeless by the 7.9-magnitude quake.
(See photos of the earthquake's destruction.)
Wolong
Some of Wolong's pandas have been moved to another breeding center in Sichuan's provincial capital, Chengdu, and eight were flown to Beijing for a previously scheduled six-month stay at the Beijing Zoo for the Olympics.
The center will have to be relocated to a new site because of safety issues, said Huang Yan, deputy director of research, but it will remain within the confines of Wolong Nature Reserve, which is located in a damp, narrow valley several hours' drive from Chengdu.
He, Mao Mao's keeper, returned from the grave with red eyes. He had been the panda's only keeper since she was three years old. He would speak to her in the local Sichuan dialect as he worked.
"It's like you could say something and she would understand," he said. "If you were happy, she was happy too."
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