Year of the Panda

The Scientist magazine declares 2007 the Year of the Panda, with a record breaking 19 pandas in kindergarten from last year's record breaking number of births at the Woolong Nature Reserve in China. Wolong director, Hemin Zhang, is cautiously optimistic about the panda's future in the wild. The Chinese government has increased the number of wild reserves from 13 to 59 over the last decade, and the next decade should see the construction of a new captive breeding facility. In addition, plans continue to relase more captive born pandas in to the wild, after the successful release of Xiangxiang in 2006.