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Technology meets nature
25/11/2002 12:59 - (SA)
Beijing - International panda experts have designed computer software to help the charismatic and endangered bears find their ideal mates, a newspaper reports.
The software, developed by experts at a meeting in China, would analyse the health and bloodlines of each panda in captivity to find the best match while avoiding close relatives, China's Star Daily said on Monday.
Plagued by habitat loss, only about 1 000 giant pandas live in the wild atop foggy, bamboo-filled mountains in western China.
The country protects hundreds more of the adored black-and-white bears in zoos, but it has proven difficult to tempt them to mate.
In the wild, female pandas usually give birth to a single cub only once every two to three years, the World Wildlife Fund said on its website.
In April, middle-aged panda Ling Ling was sent home to Japan from a Mexico City zoo where he failed to romance three female pandas. Zookeepers said Ling Ling, on his second "Mission Impossible" in Mexico, was not interested in his potential mates.
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