Global News - November 2007
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Food shortages 'threaten panda survival'
Fri 16 November 2007 15:00 UK — Asia,Bears
A report has warned that China's giant pandas could face food shortages in the future, as the bamboo plants they eat are nearing the end of their lifespan.
The state Xinhua news agency reported that Yang Xuyu, deputy head of the Sichuan provincial forestry bureau in west China, delivered the warning at the annual meeting of the China Giant Panda Breeding Technical Committee.
Mr Yang said that reports indicated that several types of bamboo were beginning to flower in the Sichuan province, home to 1,206 pandas.
After bamboo flowers, it seeds and then dies, leaving the pandas short of food.
"No wild panda has been found dead of starvation. But as the area of bamboo flowering spreads, we should keep a close watch on the severity of the pandas' food shortages," Mr Yang is reported to have said.
In the past, bamboo died and pandas still survived. However, Mr Yang said that human settlements made it harder for the creature to move to areas where newer bamboo was growing.
Figures suggest that there might be between 2,000 and 3,000 giant pandas alive in the wild.
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