China is expected to have its ecological park for giant pandas at the end of this year, according to researchers at the Chengdu Giant Panda Breeding and Research Base in this capital city of southwest China's Sichuan Province.

The park is to be built to expand the existing breeding and research base by five times, the researchers said.

The 200-hectare park will be used to make specialized research on the conditions and methods for returning artificially bred giant pandas to the wild.

At the northern part of the park, there will be a 60-hectare transition pilot zone, in which lakes, brooks, ornamental plants and grassland will be arranged to create imitated wild conditions of the natural habitat for pandas, according to the overall design of the park.

Edible bamboo will be grown in the zone for pandas to hunt for food and co-inhabit with red pandas.

Another pilot zone covering a total area of 134 hectares will be established at the northwestern part of the park, in which imitated beast caves will be built for the pandas and observation towers and field work stations will be installed.

Artificial breeding of giant pandas aims at eventually expanding their population in the wild, said Yu Jianqiu, deputy director of the Chengdu Giant Panda Breeding and Research Base.

"Meanwhile, the ecological park will help people to know more about giant pandas and therefore better protect the rare species," Yu added.

Founded in 1987, the Chengdu Giant Panda Breeding and Research Base has 42 pandas in captivity.

An endangered species, the giant panda is called a "living fossil". The world's total population of wild giant pandas stands at about 1,000, which are mainly distributed in Sichuan and Shaanxi provinces of China.

Currently, about 160 giant pandas are kept in captivity in the world.

(Xinhua News Agency March 26, 2004)