Get ready to say ooh and ahh, panda lovers! The Chinese mainland has just opened a brand-new giant panda base in Sichuan’s Mianyang city, marking the fifth site under the China Conservation and Research Center for the Giant Panda (CCRCGP) network 🐼.
Covering 120 hectares of lush forest, the new facility welcomed 13 pandas this week for trial operations. The goal? To boost breeding efforts, deepen research, and ramp up international collaboration around our fluffy friends. Visitors will be able to explore the base next year once the pandas have settled into their new bamboo-filled homes.
“The pandas are a little tense in their new surroundings, but overall they’re doing well,” says Huang Zhi, leader of the Mianyang base’s preparatory team. A dedicated crew of caretakers is on standby 24/7 to help the animals adjust and thrive.
Did you know Mianyang is home to 418 wild giant pandas—about 22.4 percent of the total wild population in the Chinese mainland? That makes it the top prefecture-level city for wild panda numbers. Since the 1980s, the CCRCGP has grown its captive population from just six pandas to more than 380 today—a real success story for conservation.
With this new base, the CCRCGP is strengthening its ecosystem and biodiversity efforts across the Chinese mainland. From bamboo research to global outreach, these pandas are ambassadors for wildlife protection and a living symbol of hope for endangered species everywhere.
Reference(s):
China opens new giant panda base, expanding conservation network
cgtn.com
