Quake has limited effect on panda habitats

BEIJING - Giant panda habitats near the epicenter of the 7.0-magnitude earthquake that shook Southwest China's Sichuan province on Saturday have suffered only minor effects from the natural disaster, the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) said on Tuesday.

Pandas in Bifengxia Panda Base have suffered little effect from the earthquake that hit Sichuan province, April 20, 2013. [Photo/Xinhua]

Aerial remote sensing images showed that the scale of landslides triggered by the quake in the giant pandas' base located in badly hit Baoxing county, Ya'an city, has not been that large so far, said the CAS.

All 60 giant pandas and nearly 100 staff at Bifengxia Panda Base, located 50 km from the epicenter in Ya'an's Longmen county, are safe. Buildings in the base suffered minor damage, said Heng Yi, director of its publicity department.

Ya'an holds about 4,700 square km of giant panda habitats, accounting for 30 percent of its total area.

According to the CAS, a total of 3,693 square km, or nearly 80 percent of panda habitats in Ya'an, had been "moderately affected" by the quake.