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Conservation
efforts Panda conservation began in China during
the 1940s. In 1963, the Chinese Government created
Wolong as a forest reserve, now better known
as a panda reserve because of the number of
pandas living there. By 1992, there were 13
panda reserves, covering a total area of 6,049km2.
The WWF, or world wildlife fund's support for
panda conservation in China started in 1980.
At first, WWF's work with the Chinese Ministry
of Forestry focused on finding out more about
the panda and its habits, because little was
known about it in the wild. It also contributed
to the construction costs of a research and
captive breeding centre at the Wolong Nature
Reserve. Called the China Conservation and Research
Centre for the Giant Panda, it opened in 1983
and is run by local scientists.
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The
panda roams in a welldefined homerange of
between 3.9 and 12 km2. Until recently, much
of what we knew about pandas came from research
at the Wolong Nature Reserve in Sichuan.
Studies
here showed that the panda lived a solitary
existence, meeting only occasionally with
other pandas, except during the very brief
mating season in late spring or early summer
when several males come together and compete
for a female. A female is on heat for two
to three days.
However,
research from Shaanxi Province's Qinling Mountains
now gives us a different perspective. Pandas
in Qinling live and travel in groups of at
least two, and sometimes in groups of up to
28. So the panda is more social then first
thought.
Unlike some other bears, the panda does not
hibernate. Its cubs are fairly small at birth,
weighing only 90 to 130 gm, but, fully grown,
it can weigh 100kg and over. Newborn cubs
have little fur and are very delicate. Infant
mortality is also high. The average life span
is 18 to 20 years in the wild, and up to 30
years in captivity.
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