China may extend giant panda census

BEIJING - China may extend a nationwide census for wild giant pandas that was scheduled to be completed by the end of 2013, as an earthquake disturbed one of the pandas' major habitats last month.

Yan Xun, chief engineer of the wildlife conservation department under the State Forestry Administration, said at a Tuesday press conference that the survey may be prolonged to 2014 due to the effects of a 7.0-magnitude earthquake that jolted Lushan county in Southwest China's Sichuan province on April 20.

The census, the fourth of its kind to be conducted, began in October 2011 with the aim of gaining detailed information about the population, habitats and distribution of giant pandas in the wild.

Yan said that although the earthquake damaged a major habitat in Sichuan, it did not have a significant impact on the panda population, citing the administration's monitoring data.

The first survey, which ended in 1976, indicated that 2,000 giant pandas were living in the wild, Yan said.

The number of wild giant pandas dropped to 1,114 in the 1980s, according to the results of the second survey. A third survey conducted from 1999 to 2003 showed that the number had risen to 1,596.