How you can help:
• Make a check payable to "Zoological Society of San Diego" and mail it to:
San Diego Zoo
Wolong Panda Center Earthquake Relief
P.O. Box 120271
San Diego, CA 92112
• If you would like to donate stock, please call:
619-231-1515, ext. 4421
Earthquake in Panda Country: One Year Later
A year has passed since China’s worst earthquake in more than 30 years—a 7.9 magnitude—struck in the heart of giant panda country on May 12, 2008. More than 87,000 people lost their lives, and cities, towns, and villages in the Sichuan Province as well as the Wolong Giant Panda Breeding Center were destroyed
Exciting news is that construction for a new Panda Breeding Center has begun! As conservation partners with the Wolong team, the San Diego Zoo continues to support the reconstruction efforts.
Construction Begins at Wolong
The new Wolong Giant Panda Breeding Center will be at Huangcaoping, which is located in a scenic valley within the Wolong Panda Reserve about 6 miles (10 kilometers) from the destroyed facility.
The site was selected for its “environmental, weather, and geological conditions,” according to a nature reserve official.
The new center will include large, natural enclosures for giant pandas, a veterinary hospital, a laboratory, a panda nursery, a panda cub play yard, a bamboo plantation, and a site for introducing giant pandas into the wild.
The new Panda Breeding Center is scheduled to open in 2015.
Update on the Wolong Giant Pandas at Bi Feng Xia
Most of Wolong’s giant pandas as well as the research and administrative staff were relocated to Wolong’s satellite facility, the Ya’an Bi Feng Xia Panda Base, after the earthquake. Jennifer Keating, a panda research technician from our San Diego Zoo’s Institute for Conservation Research, recently returned from Bi Feng Xia and reports the following news:
"A new breeding facility was constructed for the 2009 breeding season. This facility consists of 14 enclosures and the indoor portions will be used as dens for pregnant females in the fall.
Many portions of the Bi Feng Xia Panda Base have been expanded to compensate for the displaced pandas. This expansion has recently produced six large hillside exhibits for adult pandas on Leopard Mountain.
All of Wolong’s giant pandas that were relocated to other facilities due to the earthquake have been returned to Bi Feng Xia; this includes the "Beijing 8" sub-adults that were on exhibit for the Olympics."
