In Sichuan province's Wolong Nature Reserve, the happy panda is all-pervading. The stuffed toys and key rings at the centre's souvenir shops, the panda logos on travel brochures, the cartoon figures on postcards - these bears always wear a smile. But a close look at the life of the captive pandas at the reserve suggests some of them may not be as happy as they should be.
Within Wolong, the world's largest panda reserve and probably the best known in China, 53 captive animals sleep, eat, rest and breathe clean air. While wild pandas are threatened by habitat encroachment and forest destruction, those in captivity in Wolong appear to have nothing to worry about. Their home is a huge park managed by the China Conservation and Research Centre for the Giant Panda (CCRCGP). The complex forms part of a larger reserve, measuring 200,000 hectares and nestled on the slopes of the lush Qionglai Mountain, in the middle of Sichuan.
Surrounded by picturesque valleys and calmed by the gurgling of a limpid river, the reserve is also home to 110 rarely seen wild pandas. It is one of the few places in China where the winter air is not tainted by burning coal; the scent is of trees and the moon shines brightly through a clear night sky.
Seventy CCRCGP staff members care for their charges, feeding them six or seven times a day. Within walking distance of their grass-covered residences, a veterinary clinic manned by well-trained vets working 14-hour days is at the pandas' service. The clinic has recently benefited from a renovation, thanks to $1 million of funding from the Ocean Park Conservation Foundation Hong Kong.
Lavish care and improvements in conservation methods have led to a thriving panda population in Wolong in recent years. Last year, a record (in the CCRCGP's 22-year history) 16 cubs were born from 11 births, through natural or artificial insemination, significantly increasing numbers of a species renowned for its lack of fertility and low reproduction rates. According to official census findings released in 2004, there are about 1,600 giant pandas in the wild in China, compared with 1,100 in the 1970s. Another 166 pandas live in captivity. 'We have made impressive headway in the wellbeing of the pandas over the last two decades,' says CCRCGP assistant director Tang Chunxiang. 'Our pandas are very happy.'
Despite Tang's assurances, however, some of Wolong's pandas display behaviour that suggests