Panda Research Base

The panda breeding program run by the center and the Chengdu Great Panda Research Base is by far the most successful in the world. More than 90 cubs have been born here in the past 15 years, including several sets of twins, a remarkable achievement in its own right. Raising a set of panda cub twins was considered extremely difficult due to the tendency of panda mothers to abandon one of the cubs. Sichuan’s program proved it possible by actively helping the mother raise the cubs.

The number of successful births has risen steadily since scientists first started way back in the 1960s, with the survival rate reaching 100 percent in Sichuan consecutively from 2000 to 2008.

Scientists here are on the cutting-edge of panda embryo collection and insemination, paternity tests and breeding techniques. The program plans on establishing a genetic resource bank on not just the Greater Panda but on all of Sichuan’s diverse and endangered wildlife, including rare leopards and cranes, with the hope of mirroring the recent successes with captive panda breeding with other endangered species.

The breeding program was established in 1987 and expanded twice to include hundreds of hectares and facilities at the research base in Chengdu and thousands of hectares of wild habitat and a research station at the center in the wild mountains west of Chengdu. The Woloong Nature Reserve is home to a variety of endangered species of flora and fauna besides the Greater Panda and is a keystone of the government’s drive to conserve and strengthen this Province’s rich natural habitat.

The base is located just an hours drive outside of Chengdu near the Chengdu Zoo and does the serious business of breeding pandas for eventual release into the Woloong Nature Reserve several hours to the northwest, where 1/3 of all surviving Greater Pandas in the world make their home.

After release into the wild, the bears are monitored and studied with the help of a recently installed wi-fi network – a collaborative effort with Intel Chengdu. The research is used to ensure the survival of the bears in the wild, improve future efforts to breed in captivity and release into the wild and also as a template for other programs not just in China, but in any part of the world with endangered species and a shrinking habitat.

Sichuan’s efforts are augmented by a large number of national and international partners in Japan and the US, including the San Diego Zoo, the Washington Zoo and research facilities like the Center for Systems Integration and Stability (CSIS) at Michigan State University. Dozens of papers have been written by teams of Chinese and American scientists at CSIS on the impact of civilization on natural habitats and solutions for areas like Sichuan undergoing rapid development in a pristine and fragile environment.

The Panda is Sichuan’s chosen representative to the rest of the world – visitors to Chengdu’s Shuangliu airport are greeted by paintings and sculptures of the famous bear and a tall clock in the parking lot is topped by a panda bear. One of Sichuan’s more famous brands of cigarettes, Pride, uses the panda as its logo and the government portrays the bear in a lot of its promotional material.

The success of Sichuan Province’s Great Panda breeding and promotion efforts is also evident in the steady stream of international and domestic visitors willing to pull themselves out of bed at 6am to make it for breakfast with the sleepy, chubby bears.

A group leaves one of the many hotels and hostels in Chengdu almost every day – be it a small, very globalized group of backpackers, a large and plodding senior citizens tour group from Europe or a mixed Chinese-Western group from one of Chengdu’s thirty-odd universities. In September, professional dancers from the NBA Phoenix Suns as well as the Chairman of the Board for First National City Bank of New York took tours of the research base.

The short trip from the city’s northernmost temple, the Taoist Wenshuyuan Temple, to the Panda Research Center takes about 45 minutes – between 8 – 9am the bears are encouraged to lumber out onto wooden structures built specifically for the cameras and enjoy a hearty breakfast of bamboo and the occasional apple.

“Oohs” and “ahhs” and outright guffaws accompany the early morning flashes of cell phones and digital cameras as the bears – almost knowingly – put on a show for their visitors. Climbing, rolling around, on their backs with some tasty bamboo in their paws and their feet in the air: the bears seem to be enjoying the show as much as the visitors.

For a few extra yuan, anywhere from 10 – 50RMB, a visitor can also hold and pet one of the Lesser Pandas, the red, mischievous-looking-raccoon cousins of the famous Greater Panda.

After a tour of the museum and breeding center, the visitors take the trip back and arrive in Chengdu before noon.

The quiet solitude of the research base, broken only by the wind through the trees and the chattering of visitors, belies the fact that some of the world’s foremost scientists toil here daily to protect nature from the dangers of rapid economic development.

Details

Hours: 7am – 6:30pm
Tickets: 10 yuan per person; 30 yuan golf cart tour
Wheelchairs, babycarriages and umbrellas on site
How to get there: Take the city bus 1 from Tian Fu Plaza to Zhao Jue Temple, transfer to the country Bus 1, which takes you directly to the Breeding Center. 4 yuan roundtrip. Or book a trip through any hotel or hostel for 70 yuan per person.