The number of endangered giant pandas born in captivity so far this year stands at a record 27, researchers said on Thursday. This follows the birth this week of twins in southwest China’s Sichuan Province.

 

And the figure, the highest ever since 1960s when China initiated a research project on captivity breeding of giant pandas, may rise even further as experts are expecting two more deliveries at the Wolong Giant Panda Protection and Research Center, said the establishment’s director, Zhang Hemin. .

 

You You, the eight-year-old mother, gave birth to a 158.5 gram female cub and a 160 gram male cub at the Wolong center on Monday. Over the past three days both mum and babies have been doing well, Li Desheng, an expert at the center said.

 

Of the 27 bears bred in captivity 26 survived including one from Lun Lun at the Atlanta zoo.

 

Five days before You You's delivery, five-year-old Ya Ya gave birth to two cubs in Sichuan's neighboring Chongqing Municipality. Unfortunately the mother crushed one cub while sleeping.  

 

More than 30 female pandas, including 15 at the Wolong center, 16 at the Chengdu Giant Panda Breeding Research Base and several others in northwest Shaanxi Province and other locations were inseminated in spring, said Zhang Zhihe, director with the China Giant Panda Breeding Technical Committee. So far 17 of these pandas had given birth with ten sets of twins, said Zhang.

 

"We expected to get 10 cubs this year, but you see, we were too conservative!" he said. The increasing birthrate of giant pandas in captivity indicated Chinese researchers had pretty much resolved the problems of infertility among the rare species, he said.

 

The giant panda is one of the most endangered species in the world and only found in China.

 

Experts had previously estimated that there were about 1,590 giant pandas living in the wild in the country but Chinese and British scientists announced in June that there could be as many as 3,000 after a survey using a new method to profile DNA from panda feces. The State Forestry Administration say there are more than 190 giant pandas living in captivity.

 

Giant pandas have a very low fertility rate, their mating season’s only three to four days in length per year and they deliver at most two cubs at a time. And the fertility of giant pandas in captivity ranks even lower than the wild because they’d don’t move around enough, experts explain.  

 

(Xinhua News Agency September 15, 2006)