The giant panda Hua Mei that was born in the United States is likely to have a baby this year, said Huang Yan, deputy general engineer at the China Panda Research Center in Wolong, southwest China's Sichuan Province.

The researchers confirmed that the four-and-a-half-year old female panda will enter estrus this year and she can choose one of four mates at the center, Huang said Sunday.

Hua Mei, or "China America," born in the United States in 1999, set foot in China for the first time on Feb. 12. She was received as a VIP.

She will end her one month of quarantine period by Monday, and she is now accustomed to the life here and in good situation, Huang said, adding that "we will have a healthy panda mother then."

The female panda in captivity is normally sexually mature at three due to better conditions but their bodies are not ready to have babies, so researchers usually arrange mating when they are four-years old.

Pandas in capacity at Wolong usually enter estrus during March to May.

Hua Mei is the daughter of mother Bai Yun, or "White Clouds," in San Diego, California, and her father Shi Shi, or "Stone," who returned home last year. Hua Mei met her father soon after she arrived in China.

Bai Yun will continue to live in the United States with another male Gao Gao, or "Tall" and their one-year-old son Mei Sheng or "born in America".

Hua Mei will be quarantined for a month and then join with 210 other pandas in the reserve, including 140 in the wild and 70 in captivity.

Hua Mei's new home consists of a 120-sq-m hillside field encircled by an iron fence, and a 16-sq-m log cabin, installed with heating facilities.

"When I call her name she will soon approach and sniff me," said Yang Bo, Hua Mei's handler. She said there was bamboo at Wolong and Hua Mei seemed to like the local food.

Besides bamboo, her food includes cornmeal bread, biscuits provided by the center and biscuits brought from the United States.

When she had just arrived, her excrement totaled only four to five kg a day but is now 16 to 17 kg a day, Yang noted. She was just a 100-gram baby at birth, but now weighs 75 kg.

Hua Mei's parents went to the United States in 1996 as part of a 12-year research cooperation program between the two nations. The male was about 10 years older than the female and was sent back last year after six years abroad.

The female gave birth to a male panda last year after living with Gao Gao, which was considered a significant contribution to the population of giant pandas.

China has poured considerable resources into protecting the endangered species. Their numbers have been depleted by low fertility, logging, poaching and periodic dying out of their staple food, bamboo. Only 1,000 giant pandas are estimated to live in the wild, all in China, while over 140 live in captivity around the world.

Under the cooperation contract, cubs of the pandas abroad belong to China and must be returned after they are three years old.

(Xinhua News Agency March 16, 2004)