Endangered giant panda habitat in western China devastated by quake, official says

Enlarge Photo Endangered giant panda habitat in western China devastated by quake, official says

Wed, Jun 18 06:09 AM

BEIJING (AP) _ Giant panda habitat in China's Sichuan province, the endangered animal's main preserve, was devastated by last month's massive earthquake, a forestry official said. The world-renowned Wolong Nature Reserve and 48 others created in the province to protect the pandas and other endangered species were damaged by the quake, Cao Qingyao, a spokesman for the State Forestry Administration, said Tuesday.

He said about 80 percent of Sichuan panda habitat suffered some degree of damage from the quake, which sent rocks, soil and vegetation crashing into river valleys. It was unknown how many wild pandas were killed, he said.

"We still cannot reach some of the local habitats, so it's impossible to assess the exact losses," Cao told reporters in Beijing. The endangered panda is revered as an unofficial national symbol in China, the only country in which pandas are found in the wild.

About 1,600 of the animals live on steep bamboo-covered mountains mostly in Sichuan and the neighboring province of Shaanxi. Another 180 have been bred in captivity.

Wolong, which used to house 64 pandas, suffered heavy damage, with one panda killed and another still missing. The center remains closed to visitors, and might not open again until next year.

David Wildt, a panda expert who is chief scientist at the National Zoo in Washington, said photographs showed severe damage to the animal's range, but called Cao's 80 percent damage figure a "guesstimate." The only way of knowing the full effect would be to send teams into the largely inaccessible area to check, he said.

Scientists at Wolong have said wild pandas' innate survival sense would alert them to take refuge from quake-triggered landslides on high ground, but Wildt said there was no scientific proof of this theory. "We really have no clue as to how any animal is going to respond in anticipation of an earthquake," Wildt said.

RECOMMEND THIS STORY