Two giant pandas play at the Wolong Giant Panda Protection and Research Center, in Southwest China's Sichuan Province May 14, 2005.[newsphoto] Click to view the slideshow of giant pandas

Shy and rarely reproductive: that's what they are known for. But 2006 saw the other side of the giant pandas: a highly reproductive species.

In fact, the giant panda baby boom in the country has left experts worrying that the existing breeding bases would not be able to handle their growing numbers.

It is time to shift the conservation focus on one of the most endangered species in the world from breeding to helping them re-enter the natural habitat, experts said.

The 217 giant pandas bred in captivity in China gave birth to 34 cubs through artificial insemination last year, the State Forestry Administration (SFA) said yesterday. Thirty of the cubs survived.

The figure may not seem large enough until it is compared to those from 2005 (12 births) and 2000 (only nine).

The number of new-born cubs and the survival rate both hit a record, SFA spokesperson Cao Qingyao said.

Pandas have always been known as poor breeders because of the extremely high rate of incompatibility between males and females. That some females can mate for as few as 48 hours a year doesn't make things any easier for either the males or conservation of the species.

Since 1998, Chinese and foreign scientists have been trying many techniques. They have even made them watch porn films, says Wang Hao, a researcher at Peking University's Giant Panda Conservation and Research Center.

The key is to "try to create a nature habitat", says Zhang Hemin, director of China Research and Conservation Center for Giant Panda in Wolong. Seventeen cubs were born at the center in Sichuan Province last year.

Giant panda breeding has not experienced any technical "bottleneck", Wang says.

"The problem with many breeding bases such as Wolong is that they don't have enough space or money to keep so many cubs."

The first steps to help captive giant pandas re-enter the wild have, however, not been too successful.

Last year, the Wolong center reportedly helped a male re-enter the wild. But after experts found that it was dying because it could not fend for itself in the wild it had to be taken back.

China has about 1,600 pandas in the wild in the provinces of Sichuan, Gansu and Shaanxi.

(China Daily 01/04/2007 page1)