Two under-age male giant pandas have been sent by plane from Wolong in southwestern Sichuan Province, the ancestral home of the rare species, to this capital city of east China's Fujian Province.

The move is part of China's panda exchange program, which aims to maintain the biodiversity of the country's giant panda population, said Dong Li, director of animal keeping department of the Wolong Panda Research Center in southwest China's Sichuan Province, on Wednesday.

The two, named Linyang and Fufu, were born in 2001 and weighed 81 kg and 109 kg. Their arrival brought Fuzhou's total number of giant pandas in captivity to five.

Dong Li said the exchange will help avoid inbreeding and improve the reproduction capacity of giant pandas in captivity.

"Inbreeding among giant pandas in the same region easily leads to the species' degeneration," Dong Li acknowledged.

The Wolong center has dispatched a team of zoo keepers to the Fuzhou Giant Panda Research Center. And the Fuzhou center will work together with the special team to keep a close watch of Linyang and Fufu, said Chen Yucun, head of the Fuzhou center.

According to Wei Rongping, a senior researcher with the Wolong center, China launched a giant panda and habitat protection program in 1993. Under the program, giant pandas living in wild have since been effectively protected and their population is on the rise. The number of giant pandas in captivity has risen to approximately 160, which are distributed in breeding centers and zoos nationwide.

In-captivity breeding is becoming a crucial means to protect giant pandas from extinction, said Zhang Zhihe, head of a breeding and research center for the rare species in Chengdu, capital of Sichuan Province.

However, giant pandas, especially males, in captivity are limited. Inbreeding tends to be a problem in many research centers and zoos.

(Xinhua News Agency April 15, 2005)