Twenty-year-old giant panda Qing Qing is expected to break her own record in giving births as she has shown signs that she will have her 14th baby soon, reliable sources said in Chengdu, Sichuang Province, Thursday.

Qing Qing, born in 1984, has already produced a record 13 offspring, including four sets of twins, in nine births since 1989,according to a source with 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 what has made Qing Qing amazing was that all her 13 babies have survived, a miracle in China's history of artificial breeding of the rare creatures.

Yu said, giant pandas begin to show signs of pregnancy about two weeks before giving birth. Usually, would-be-mother-pandas eatless, or even refuse to eat anything before giving birth. Qing Qing began showing signs of pregnancy on July 21.

The grande panda gave birth to her 13th baby in September last year.

A female giant panda can become pregnant once a year and give birth to at least one baby each time. It becomes sexually mature at the age of four or five, and becomes infertile when it is about20.

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 organ 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 rare creatures are regarded as "state treasures" by the Chinese people.

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)