Sunday, June 25, 2006

Fighting panda extinction

The Chinese are trying to help pandas reproduce by setting aside more land area as reserves for them.

BEIJING (Reuters) - China is giving an unusually endangered species of panda extra space, privacy and protection to help the animals reproduce, state media said on Friday.

The 300 pandas of a rare subspecies who call northwest China's central Shaanxi province home will soon be protected by five new reserves in the fog-shrouded Qinling mountains, the China Daily said. ...

The reserves would cover about 80 percent of the pandas' habitat once they are expanded from 181,100 to 500,000 hectares, the paper said.

This is undoubtedly a triumph for all the panda lovers, but I can't see how changing the designation of land that the creatures already use will help them breed more.

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