34 pandas born in captivity in China last year
A mini-baby boom last year has pushed up the number of pandas bred in captivity in China to 217, state media said today.
Some 34 pandas were born by artificial insemination in 2006 and 30 survived - both record numbers for the endangered species, Cao Qingyao, a spokesman for the State Forestry Administration, was quoted as saying by the Xinhua News Agency.
China has been raising pandas through artificial insemination for nearly 50 years, mostly at two research facilities in the south-western province of Sichuan.
In 2006, 17 cubs were born and survived at the Wolong Giant Panda Protection and Research Centre and 12 survived at the Chengdu Research Base. The other panda was bred at the zoo in the south-western city of Chongqing.
The panda is one of the world’s rarest animals, with about 1,590 living in the wild in China, mostly in Sichuan and the western province of Shaanxi.
