(Xinhua)
Updated: 2008-06-10 18:58

CHENGDU - A 9-year-old female giant panda that had lived at the Wolong nature reserve was confirmed dead as a result of the May 12 earthquake, with her body retrieved and buried on Tuesday.

Mao Mao was among six pandas who went missing after the quake. The other five were found.

Rescuers found the body in the rubble of the pandas' pens on Monday and excavated it on Tuesday morning, said Li Desheng, vice head of the China Giant Panda Protection and Research Center in Wolong.

"Mao Mao had three offspring, aged between less than one year old and three years old. All of them will be raised carefully," Li said.

The Wolong reserve sustained severe damage from a quake-triggered landslide, with the death of five staff and the panda Mao Mao. Fourteen of the 32 pens were destroyed.

The reserve has more than 150 pandas living in the wild. Eight pandas from the Wolong base were airlifted to Beijing Zoo last month where they will stay through the Olympics, and another six were taken to Sichuan's Ya'an base, which was less affected by the earthquake.