WOLONG, China (AFP) — Six rare giant pandas were evacuated Friday from the famed Wolong breeding centre in southwest China due to food shortages and damage caused by last week's earthquake, staff said.
The endangered animals were trucked to another nature reserve in quake-hit Sichuan province, following eight others that were removed on Thursday in a departure planned before the earthquake, staff members told an AFP journalist.
"They left today. They are already gone," said one of several staffers at the now largely-deserted site to look after the roughly 46 pandas left there.
Three other pandas remained missing following the quake, staff said.
Xinhua news agency had earlier quoted a local forestry official as saying food pressures were a factor in moving out some of the animals.
"There is enough water now, but food is still a major problem. The pandas are in urgent need of bamboo and apples," Xiong Beirong, of the Sichuan provincial forestry bureau, was quoted as saying.
The six pandas were headed for a reserve near the city of Ya'an, about 200 kilometres (124 miles) to the southwest.
The fate of the Wolong pandas, possibly Sichuan's most famed residents, has been a cause of public concern following the quake, which cut off access to large areas, including Wolong.
The centre is a major tourist draw and a source of some of the pandas that China has loaned to overseas zoos in diplomatic goodwill gestures.
The epicentre of last week's quake was in Wenchuan county, about 30 kilometres from Wolong.
Damage was visible at the site, although it did not appear heavy. However, a structure built to provide medical treatment to the pandas has collapsed.
The powerful quake caused massive damage in the region and at least 55,000 deaths.
Eight other pandas were flown out of Sichuan for the Beijing Zoo on Thursday, a zoo spokeswoman told AFP.
However, that transfer was previously scheduled amid plans to display the pandas in the capital during the August 8-24 Olympic Games.
"The eight pandas will arrive at the zoo from Wolong on Saturday. We still don't know their condition and won't be able to judge that until they arrive here," the spokeswoman said.
Authorities had sent the reserve a large shipment of bamboo shoots -- the panda's staple food -- and other sustenance in recent days.
The Wolong centre has 86 pandas registered in its books, including those loaned out to zoos, Xinhua said.
The panda is one of the world's most endangered species, with an estimated 1,600 in nature parks in Sichuan, Gansu and Shaanxi provinces, and 239 in captivity, Chinese media have said.
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