A ceremony was held Wednesday at the Qinling Research Center of Giant Panda Breeding in northwest China's Shaanxi Province, to celebrate the adoption of the world's only captive brown giant panda.

The male brown-and-white panda Qi Zai (meaning "7th son"), born in 2009, was adopted by Pandas International, a Denver-headquartered non-profit organization co-founded by Suzanne Braden and Diane Rees in 2000, which aims to ensure the preservation and propagation of the giant panda.

"Representing Pandas International, it is my privilege to work with the staff here at Louguantai and to adopt the giant panda Qi Zai. He is a very unique and special panda, so we have a very strong and more bond with the people here. We hope that we will have a very long relationship and work together for many many years to come. We hope to provide them very much needed supplies and work with all of the pandas here for a better environment for the pandas," said Suzanne Braden, co-founder of Pandas International.

Granting the adoption of Qi Zai shows the appreciation for Pandas International, which has been donating vaccines, lab instruments, baby panda cribs and milk powder to the center and helping with its daily work, the research center said.

The world's first brown panda was discovered in 1985 in the Qinling Mountains. All photographs of wild brown pandas were taken in the area, with one specimen in the Changqing National Nature Reserve in the province's Yangxian County last March.

The research center also expects more international and domestic organizations and individuals to participate in panda conservation.

(Cover image: Qi Zai. /VCG Photo)

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