¡¡
|
[ Achievement ] Blight Panda's Major Food |
|
2006-12-25 0:00:00 |
| Project Name:Blight Panda's Major Food |
| Project Owner:Gansu |
Project Introduction:
|
Scientists Identify Insects that Blight Giant Panda's Major Food |
 |
|
|
| Forestry experts in Gansu Province have identified more than 20 insects that plague arrow bamboo, a major food for giant pandas. |
 Forestry experts in northwest China's Gansu Province have identified more than 20 insects that plague arrow bamboo, a major food for giant pandas.
The findings are the result of a survey launched in 2002 in an effort to curb the plague of insect pests. The aim was to improve the quality of arrow bamboos so as to provide the best possible food resources for giant pandas.
An expert panel of the Gansu Provincial Science and Technology Department, headed by zoologist Wang Hongjian, spent the past three years studying insect pests in Baishuijiang Nature Reserve, located in the southernmost part of Gansu Province and bordering Sichuan Province, which is home to 102 giant pandas and at least 20 varieties of bamboos.
According to a 1996-1998 forestry survey, nearly half of the reserve's 608 square kilometers of bamboo forests were plagued by insects.
Wang said preservation of arrow bamboo is an important step in China's conservation of giant pandas.
Pandas are among the world's most endangered wild animals, they mainly live in mountainous areas in the provinces of Sichuan, Shaanxi and Gansu.
According to statistics from the State Forestry Administration released in 2004, the number of pandas in the wild in China has risen by more than 40 percent from 1,110 in the 1980s to 1,590 today.
(Source: Xinhua)
| | ¡¡ |
|
|
¡¡
|