Saturday, August 14, 2010

Giant Panda Nursery

(photos courtesy of www.galenfrysinger.com)
Yesterday, I watched a fascinating documentary on GPB called Giant Panda Nursery.  Established in 1982, the China Research and Conservation Center for the Giant Panda is located in the Wolong Nature Reserve.  All of the world's giant pandas live in this part of Western China.  Their population continues to decrease as the human population in China grows. 

The center's employees have worked tirelessly to protect this species from extinction by building habitats for them and implementing a unique breeding program.  The US-China Environmental Fund helps to support the center along with donations from the San Diego Zoo and other organizations across the world.  The future of the this species depends on restoring their natural habitat since giant pandas need healthy forests and massive quantities of bamboo to survive. 

Visitors can spend the night at the Panda Hotel-how exciting!  I would love to do ao and see all of this in person.  The center (and others like it, although this one is the largest) hopes to save the giant panda before it is too late. 

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