News time:on 22 January 2008

In 1957 the Chinese government decided it was high time to start looking into protecting their revered animal. In 1963 the Chinese government started the first giant panda reserve and since has set aside a total of 10 panda reservations.
 The Wolong (translated as sleepy dragon) Nature Reserve, or sometimes known as "Wolong Giant Panda Reserve," is probably the most important giant panda reserve and at 785 square miles (2,035 sq. km) Wolong Nature Reserve is the largest giant panda reserve in the world. It is situated in the heart of the giant panda range at an elevation of 6,500 feet (1.980 cm).
 The Ministry of Forestry of PRC and the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) formulated the long-term Giant Panda Management Plan up until 1989. In the early 1990's it is known that approximately 140 giant pandas populated the reserve. Even though this is a reserve, the poaching and forestry activity continues which results in a steady decline of the giant panda population within the "protective" reserve.
 Today, the Wolong Giant Panda Reserve Center has been turned into the Giant Panda Breeding Center focusing primarily on continuing studies of artificial breeding in the hopes that they may successfully achieve live births of giant pandas which, after the cub reaches maturity, will be released into the forests. The other primary function of the Reserve is bamboo ecology. Most of the previous research is now being carried out in other giant panda reserves such as the one in Qinling Mountains of Shaanxi Province.
 The Wolong Giant Panda Reserve Center basically takes care of giant pandas under three situations:
 1. When giant pandas are brought up from captive breeding,
 2. When giant pandas are somehow separated or are rescued from injury, and have lost the ability to survive if released back to the wild.
 3. When a giant panda is ready to be released back into the wild from other reserves.