Donation and Support

At present, the Wolong Giant Panda Club provides participation and donation forms: individual adoption, special adoption, group adoption, and life-long adoption. In order to take in more members of common people, we also accept student members, silver card members and life-long members. At the same time, we accept donations and contributions from anyone willing to help all over the world. Contribution of any amount shall be rewarded by the club accordingly.

Right of Adoption: The adopter of a giant panda will immediately become a golden card member of the club, and get a golden card, certificate of adoption, and souvenirs like periodicals and albums of pictures. In each year within the period of adoption, the adopter can take 10 people to visit and take pictures with the adopted giant panda.

Rights of members: a member of the club can get a member's card, a club emblem, periodicals and souvenirs Within the period of membership, a member can visit and take pictures with the giant pandas¡¯ garden of Wolong, and join various activities organized by the club.

Commitment of the club: all the money received from adoption, contribution and donation, and membership fee shall be put into the protection of the giant panda, including scientific researches on the giant panda, the breeding and health-caring of the giant panda, and the running of the club.

Objective and Significance of Adoption

Turning your eyes towards Nature, you will see 5 million to 10 million species of animals and plants living with us; but one of the most precious of those species, the giant panda, has only a group of around 1000. People are working hard to save this lovely animal from extinction.
Narrowly distributed, the giant panda is a  "national treasure" of China. It is an ancient species with mystic biological characteristics; apart from this, it is also a lovely and tame animal. For these reasons, it is loved by people all over the world, and is known as a  "living fossil"  and seen as a symbol of friendship. But unfortunately, because of human activities and the weakness of the giant panda itself, this lovely animal is now on the edge of extinction.
The expansion of human activities like farming and logging led to the shrinking of the habitat and food resources of the giant panda. Hunting and poaching also added to the disaster of the giant panda. Because of logging, railway construction and related exploration, the total distribution area of the giant panda has decreased to 10000 square kilometers, which is further divided into dozens of isolated pieces. Living these isolated habitats, different groups of giant pandas has less chance of exchanging their genes. This has led to inner-breeding and a deterioration of the whole group¡¯s quality. Besides, the diet of the giant panda is very specialized, consisting mainly of arrow bamboos. When the earth undergone the ice age period, the temperature fell sharply and vegetation changed drastically. As a result, arrow bamboo-the food source of the giant panda-died out in most places. And because the lower nutrition rate of arrow bamboos, the giant panda has to eat a lot of bamboos to make up. In the wild, a giant panda often spends 10 to 14 hours in eating 30 to 40 kilograms of bamboos. The reproduction rate of the giant panda is also very low. A female giant panda is only in heat every two or three years. Mating in the spring, it gives birth to one or two panda (if two, one cub shall be deserted) cubs in each pregnancy in August or September. The average life span of a giant panda is less than 20 years. Its reproduction age is between six and fifteen. The panda cub is very small, having a weight about 100 grams, that is 1/1200 of a grown up giant panda. Therefore, the survival rate of panda cubs is very low. Generally speaking, the vitality and survival rate is higher when the cub has a heavier weight. However, if an unborn baby grows too big, the pain and danger involved in delivery is much higher. So biologists conclude that the golden weight ratio between a mammal cub and its mother is 1: 20.Scientists presume that 3millions years ago, the weight ratio was 1:50 because if the baby is too big, the mother will be susceptible to natural enemies and have difficulties in moving about to search for food. Under the principle of natural selection, the ratio gradually developed to the present condition. For the weak mother who has just given birth, a small babies means that she can move more easily to search for food or escape from enemies. But for the small and weak baby, it is more susceptible to death when hurt and then infected. A small panda cub also has less resistance to diseases and parasites. Thus, the chain of life became very fragile. Even there is no human poaching and natural enemies like tigers, leopards and eagles, the panda group can only maintain a very low growing rate. A solitary animal, the giant panda has no fixed mate and home; sometimes, it may forsake panda cubs. It is fat and moves slow; so when in a difficult situation, it can hardly resist its enemies or escape from them.
According to the directions of IUCN (International Union for the Conservation of Nature), if the population of a species falls below 1000, manual breeding center should be established to help its reproduction. When the population reaches a certain number, reintroduction to nature will be conducted to further conserve the species. In 1980, WWF and the Chinese government collaborated and established the China Giant Panda Protection and Research Center. The center carries the important mission to protect the giant panda and its artificial reproduction. Its main task is to study about the ecology, physiology, biochemistry, nutritional science, medical care and disease treatment of the giant panda. In order to increase the population to be able to introduce it to nature, comprehensive researches will also be conducted to gain scientific data about the giant panda. This task will help to preserve the genetic diversity of the giant panda.
At present, the China Giant Panda Protection and Research Center has the largest group of manually-bred wild animals, i.e. more than 40 giant pandas. At the same time, it also has a group of young scientific researchers who are devoted to the enterprise of protecting the giant panda. Some of them have already become world-known giant panda specialists. In the past years, they have published 8 monographs and more than 300 research papers. From 1991 to 2000, they have successfully bred 36 giant panda cubs in 32 pregnancies, which is an outstanding contribution to the protection of the giant panda.
Although the national government has put a lot of money into the protection of the giant panda, it is still not enough for scientific researches, artificial reproduction and protection of the giant panda. For this reason, we still need help from friends all over the world. The adoption of giant panda project is to raise money to help researches on, protection and artificial reproduction of the giant panda. All the money raised shall be put into programs aimed to help the giant panda.
So let us act hand in hand to help the giant panda and other rare wild animals and plants, to conserve our environment, and to make wild animals able to coexist with us on the earth.