Quake-Hit Panda Center May Move to Safer Ground

Cara Anna in Shanghai, China
Associated Press

May 29, 2008

The chief of the world's most famous giant panda reserve wants to find a new home for the conservation center, which was badly damaged by this month's deadly earthquake in China.

"It's better to move, I think," Zhang Hemin, chief of the Wolong National Nature Reserve, said by phone Thursday.

The remote reserve is just 20 miles (32 kilometers) from the epicenter of the May 12 earthquake, which has killed more than 68,000 people, including five people who worked for the reserve. (See pictures of the quake's devastation.)

One panda remains missing, and several of the panda shelters have been destroyed. Conditions remain so bad that the Chinese government last week arranged an emergency food shipment of about 5 tons of bamboo for the 47 pandas still at the reserve.

(Read: "Panda Finds Way Home to Reserve After China Quake" [May 20, 2008].)

Landslides have closed roads from the panda center to the east, where farmers grow bamboo in large, open bottomlands for the captive pandas to eat, Marc Brody, president of the U.S.-China Environmental Fund (USCEF), told National Geographic News.

"Pandas [browse through] 20 kilos [44 pounds] of fresh bamboo a day, and so when the bamboo supplies are not accessible due to road closures, it becomes a serious crisis," said Brody, who has received funding from the National Geographic Society for panda conservation research. (The National Geographic Society owns National Geographic News.)

No possible locations for the move were given.

Breeding Roadblock

The reserve's location in a damp, narrow valley several hours' drive from the capital of Sichuan Province made it an easy target during the 8 magnitude quake, which tossed down boulders the size of cars. Most of the staffers, tourists, and pandas were outside at the time.

According to an article by the only journalist at the reserve during the quake, the Shanghai Morning Post's Wu Fei, some pandas froze and looked at the sky, not moving even when their handlers tried to get them going.

Some tourists reported that the pandas seemed to sense the quake in the minutes before it happened.

Wolong handlers trying to rescue more than a dozen cubs were forced to climb a wooden ladder out of the reserve to a bridge—gripping the babies in their arms—after the center's entrance was blocked by a landslide, Brody told National Geographic News.

The cubs were evacuated to Shawan, a settlement about 6.2 miles (10 kilometers) away. (Watch an exclusive video of the cubs being evacuated.)

The rescue was complicated because some of the adult pandas were in what the Chinese call their "falling in love period," being particularly excitable and prone to attack, reserve researcher Heng Yi told Wu for the article.

"Clearly the earthquake coming at the start of breeding season is going to be disruptive to this year's reproduction cycle, and they're not going to have as many babies," USCEF's Brody said.

Some pandas have been moved to another breeding center in the Sichuan capital, Chengdu, and eight were flown to Beijing last weekend for a previously scheduled six-month stay at the Beijing Zoo for the Olympics.

Silver Lining

Brody said relocating the pandas would be a preventive measure in the event another aftershock might close roadways and block delivery supplies from the west.

"The reason the move is being evaluated is for the certainty of the pandas safety and welfare, and measures have to be taken so that a reliable food supply can be maintained under emergency conditions," he said.

Meanwhile, any move of the Wolong center has to wait for a damage assessment by geologists, Zhang, the reserve's chief, said.

A state-run news agency also reported Thursday that another panda reserve, China's largest, has had to call off patrols and its annual panda census because of the quake's aftershocks.

The disaster does have a silver lining, Brody said: It "reinforces the necessity to rethink the infrastructure and strategies for breeding pandas in captivity."

Brody said one future model would be to place panda centers in mountainous areas with an abundant supply of bamboo and water, so that the captive animals could essentially live in their natural habitat.

Christine Dell'Amore of National Geographic News contributed to this report.