Chinese pandas to have TV reality show

Beijing, July 30 (IANS/EFE) The pandas, the pride of China and a species most in danger of going extinct, will be getting their own television reality show with one TV channel recording their activities 24 hours a day, China's state-run CCTV television network announced Monday.

The Giant Panda Channel, which currently is available only via the Internet at ipanda.com will use video taken by 28 cameras that have been set up in the animals' main preserve, located in the central city of Chengdu.

Viewers can choose to see images taken in six areas, including the site where the baby pandas are raised and the spot where the twin cubs are living. Twins are frequent occurrences in these animals when artificial conception techniques are used.

The channel will officially begin broadcasting in August, although it has begun experimental operations over the past few weeks, and during that time it has attracted some 15,000 viewers on the web.

It is possible that the channel may offer images of the baby pandas Po and De De, who were born in the Madrid Zoo but who travelled in May to China to live permanently.

Pandas, which can only be found in China in the wild, are in danger of extinction due to the reduction of the mountain forests where they live.

Currently, there are some 1,600 pandas in the wild plus 210 in captivity, of which 150 are in the Chengdu preserve.

--IANS/EFE

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