It looks like 20-year-old giant panda Qing Qing will soon break her own maternity record. She has recently begun showing signs that she will have her 14th baby soon.

Qing Qing, born in 1984, has already produced a record 13 offspring, including four sets of twins, in nine births since 1989, according to the Giant Panda Breeding and Research Center in Chengdu, capital of southwest China's Sichuan Province.

Yu Jianqiu, deputy head of the center, said that the fact that all 13 of Qing Qing's cubs have survived is a miracle in China's history of artificial breeding of the rare creatures.

Giant pandas begin to show signs of pregnancy only about two weeks before giving birth. Usually, mothers-to-be eat less or refuse to eat at all shortly before giving birth. Qing Qing began showing signs of pregnancy on July 21.

This grande dame of the panda world had her 13th baby in September last year.

A female giant panda can become pregnant once a year and give birth to at least one cub each time. She becomes sexually mature at the age of four or five, and becomes infertile at about 20.

Chinese zoologists have been successful in improving the birth rate of giant pandas in captivity, with more than 90 percent of artificially bred pandas surviving.

The Chengdu-based breeding center is the sole giant panda research institution in China and the world's only research base for giant pandas in captivity. The center now has 42 giant pandas.

Giant pandas are believed to have been around during the time of the dinosaurs. The critically endangered animals are considered state treasures in China.

About 1,590 giant pandas still live in the wild, mostly in the high mountains around Sichuan Basin, and 160 live in captivity.

(Xinhua News Agency August 6, 2004)