Chinanews, Beijing, Nov. 27 ¨C Bamboo is the major food for giant pandas. However, recently, it is reported that bamboos growing in 35 counties in Sichuan, the main habitat for Chinese giant pandas, are in a blooming season. The area of the blooming bamboos has amounted to 60,900 hectares, accounting for 3.5% of the total areas of bamboos growing in Sichuan.

During the 1970s and 1980s, similar occasions already occurred in Sichuan. At that time, large areas of bamboos growing in Minshan Mountain and Qionglai Mountain Range also bloomed. As a result, about 200 giant pandas died of hunger due to bamboo bloom.

At present, the incident has aroused great concern of the local government. By taking effective measures, local government has vowed that the tragedy would not happen again this time.

Experts say that bamboo blooming is a natural phenomenon and human beings can do little about it. Right now, all saving measures taken by people are only expedient measures. In search for new food resource, those giant pandas that are able to travel for long distances and sustain the hunger will finally survive. This might serve as a good thing to the existence of the animal species. The key to the solution is making giant pandas move freely between different habitats.

In Sichuan, about 708 giant pandas have lived in Minshan Mountain Range, which has been regarded as the largest habitat for giant pandas in the province. Due to human activities, many places in the mountain range have been isolated from each other. In future, scientists will build a gateway near Dudiling. The gateway will link the two closest giant pandas habitats together so that the rare animals could move freely in a larger area, said Yang Xuhuang, deputy head of the Sichuan Provincial Wildlife Resources Protection Base.