China's panda conservation efforts bearing fruit

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In the rugged and remote Southwest China Sichuan Province, daunting mountain ranges touch the sky – it is home to China’s most iconic creature, the panda, that was facing extinction until a few years back.

Giant panda population has almost doubled because of conservation efforts in the past 50 years. Roughly 1,900 pandas are now living in the wild. After decades on the endangered species list, the panda’s status was recently improved to vulnerable.

China is fighting the battle to save the giant panda on many fronts. CGTN visit one of them: The China Giant Panda Conservation and Research Center, located on the outskirts of Sichuan's provincial capital, Chengdu.

Keeper Xu Yalin explained to CGTN the behavior of the creature while preparing breakfast for one of the 32 pandas.

“I feed them two or three times a day. If you make a gesture, for example, to open their mouth to have their gums checked, they’re very cooperative and open it. If you ask them to sit up and stretch their arms, they also cooperate.”

Many of the residents here have been rescued from the wild, where sickness, age or injury meant their chances of survival were deemed extremely low. A leg of a panda is missing; another has no teeth.

Other pandas at this center and other similar facilities in China are the product of a breeding program that relies mainly on artificial insemination.

The Pandas born here are considered too domesticated to survive in the wild. Those who are selected for release in the wild are trained through a special program.

China is providing care for 464 pandas across the country.

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