State media reports that breeders at the Chengdu Giant Panda Breeding Research Station in Sichuan province are being forced to ration bamboo because landslides triggered by the 8.0 magnitude quake ravaged much of the province’s bamboo plants.

The breeders say they are giving the pandas animal feed and fruit as a substitute until new bamboo shoots emerge and become large enough to harvest.

Research staff told the official Xinhua news agency that the animals haven’t been too keen on the change in diet, and some have already lost weight.

This year’s bamboo shortage comes during the breeding season, a time when pandas need to consume more food, according to Wang Chengdong, an official with the station.

Wildlife officials believe that only 1,590 pandas live in the wild, all in China, and about 1,400 were in the part of the southwestern province of Sichuan most affected by the May 12 earthquake.

One panda died in the quake at a nature reserve in Wolong.

Officials announced on Tuesday that ongoing tremors have forced them to move all of the pandas kept at the Hetaoping Research and Conservation Center in the mountainous Wolong Nature Reserve to other breeding centers away from the strongest seismic shaking.

Photo: P. Wei - iStockphoto
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