Xiongbang, the world’s first artificially bred panda born in the wintertime, looked robust and comfy as he greeted visitors at the Chengdu Giant Panda Breeding and Research Center in southwest China’s Sichuan Province.

Wrapping up his two-month quarantine, the handsome young man born in the Adventure World Park Zoo in Japan on December 17, 2001, has adapted perfectly to his diet and habitat in China, said panda expert Yu Jianqiu.

“We regularly checked his physical condition, food intake and demeanor during the quarantine period. The panda is healthy and putting on weight,” Yu said.

Weighing in at 86 kilograms, Xiongbang lives in a specially built “apartment” with a bedroom, living room and playground.

Surrounded by bamboo groves, his lodgings are equipped with advanced sterilization equipment for those entering or exiting. A veteran keeper is taking care of Xiongbang, said research center Director Zhang Zhihe.

Xiongbang was born to Yongming and Meimei, a panda couple China leased to the Adventure World Park Zoo in western Japan’s Wakayama Prefecture in 1994 and 2000. Pandas usually give birth in the summer or fall, so the appearance of Xiongbang in mid-December made him quite a Christmas surprise.

Chinese law requires the offspring of Chinese giant pandas born overseas to be returned to China before they are sexually mature, normally at five or six years old.

“It is time for Xiongbang to join the giant panda breeding plan since he has adjusted well to his new life,” Zhang said.

Forty-two giant pandas now live in the research center, the only professional giant panda research institute in China. Located on the northern outskirts of Chengdu, the center was established in 1987 to mimic the natural living environment of wild pandas.

With a history believed to date back to the age of dinosaurs, pandas today are on the verge of extinction. There are fewer than 1,600 pandas left in the world, mainly distributed in China’s Sichuan and Shanxi provinces.

(Xinhua News Agency August 25, 2004)