Giant pandas in southwestern China's reserve no longer have to weather the scorching summers using just fans and ice as their home has been installed with an air conditioning system this year, state media said Wednesday.
The rare and endangered species are staying cool this summer in air-conditioned rooms after the Chengdu Giant Panda Breeding Research Center "scraped together" 5 million yuan (602,000 dollars) to install 35 air conditioners.
Part of the money also went towards paying for 10 delivery rooms for pregnant panda mothers.
Giant pandas used to live in temperate climate and 3,200 to 3,500 meters above sea level three million years ago, according to Li Guanghan, director of the center.
Although the animals have grown accustomed to living in the climate of the plains, they experience low appetite and unstable health in hot weather, he said.
Due to lack of funds in the past, the center could only provide electric fans and ice for the pandas even when temperatures rose above 30 degrees in the center, located in the capital of Sichuan province.
Pandas are on the verge of extinction, with only about 1,000 left in the world, most in China.
The center is in charge of helping the pandas reproduce through methods such as artificial insemination.
(China Daily 07/18/2001)
