Bifengxia Giant Panda Center

Bifengxia Giant Panda Center is located in Ya’an City, about 150 kilometers from Chengdu. Like the Wolong and Dujiangyan Center, Bifengxia is also a branch of the China Conservation & Research Center for the Giant Panda.

As the Wolong Center program has grown, not only has it become crowded, but the threat of disease or infection outbreaks has become of great concern. If there were an epidemic among captive pandas at Wolong Center, it could wipe out the entire population. To prevent this, the plan is to split the captive Wolong pandas into two distinct populations.

In October 2002, the construction of the Bifengxia Giant Panda Center began in Ya’an and was completed in 2003, covering nearly 400 hectares. It was still a small Panda Center with only 46 staff members.

In 2008, there was a big earthquake in Sichuan. To protect the pandas from further damage in the earthquake, forty Giant Pandas were evacuated to the Bifengxia base from Wolong following the earthquake. Currently, there are 58 total enclosures at Bifengxia, and has grown to about 144 staff members. The center has embraced its growing role in the survival of the giant panda.

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