The World Wildlife Fund (WWF) and the Shaanxi Provincial Forestry Bureau have launched a giant panda monitoring program, establishing ID records for every giant panda living in the area of Qinling Range.

 

The program aims to provide detailed and accurate statistics about Qinling giant pandas, which will provide scientists with information on the Qinling panda habitats and how they change, insiders said.

 

The Qinling giant panda, mainly living around Qinling Range area, China's northwest Shaanxi Province, is a sub-species of the Sichuan giant panda.

 

With a population of around 300, Qinling pandas are even fewer than Sichuan pandas.

 

The construction of the monitoring and protection network, introduced as the first comprehensive field monitoring program of Qinling giant pandas since the third national survey on Chinese giant pandas, will include 14 natural reserves and five corridors.

 

WWF, the co-sponsor of the program, has worked for the protection of the Qinling giant pandas for many years and has contributed a great deal to giant panda habitat construction and natural reserve building.

 

(Xinhua News Agency March 19, 2006)