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Ananova
:
China
is hoping for a panda baby boom
China is hoping for a panda baby boom.
Thirteen giant pandas at breeding centres in the country's south west
are pregnant and expected to give birth in a few months.
Some could be carrying twins, so as many as 20 babies could be born,
said Zhang Anju, director of the Giant Panda Breeding Technology Committee
of China.
"This is wonderful news," Zhang was quoted as saying by the
official Xinhua News Agency.
The giant panda is one of the world's most-endangered species.
Fewer than 1,000 are believed to be living in the wild, most in the
western Chinese province of Sichuan.
Numbers are falling rapidly due to destruction of their habitat, their
low birth rate and a diet made up mostly of a single plant - bamboo.
Efforts to increase panda numbers by breeding them in captivity, sometimes
using artificial insemination, have had only mixed success.
Xinhua says nine pregnant pandas at a breeding centre in the western
city of Chengdu have been moved to a special air-conditioned birth facility.
Four others at the Wolong Nature Reserve in Sichuan are also expected
to give birth.
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