Five adult pandas, three females and two males, are expected to enter their oestrum shortly, according to forestry officials and zoologists preparing for artificial breeding at the wildlife breeding base in Zhouzhi county, located in the outback of the provincial capital of Xi'an.

If everything goes well, the province expects to welcome its first artificially-bred panda cub in August, said one zoologist.

The five pandas have been under intensive care since early December: each meal is tailor-made to ensure good nutrition, more time is allotted for outdoor movement, and potential couples are placed in adjacent pens to establish intimacy.

As two of the three female pandas have delivered cubs before, experts held that the breeding is likely to be based on natural mating, and artificial fertilization techniques will be used whenever necessary.

Giant pandas, the world's most endangered species, encounter frequent difficulties in mating and pregnancy and suffer high infant mortality rates.

Some 1,000 giant pandas are living in the wild, scattered among the mountains in China's Sichuan, Shaanxi, Gansu and Qinghai provinces, all in southwestern and northwestern China. Central China's Qinling Mountains boast the largest panda population in the country.

Artificial breeding of the rare species is a well-developed technology in China. The Chengdu Giant Panda Breeding Research Center in southwestern Sichuan Province has reported many successful cases over the past decade.

(Xinhua News Agency February 19, 2003)