In 1953, Chengdu Zoo began the breeding of giant pandas and thus began the history of breeding and artificial reproduction of the giant panda in China. Two years later, Beijing Zoo also began to breed giant pandas. From 1953 to the present, more than 40 zoos, parks or natural reserves in China have bred or exhibited giant pandas. Before the 1980s, giant pandas in public zoos are mostly captured or saved from nature; in the early 1980s, a number of sick and famine-striken giant pandas in the famine caused by bamboo blossoming were rescued and put into public zoos. Since the 1990s, few pandas have been saved or captured from nature, but most cured wild pandas have been returned to where they came from. In 1963, the first giant panda of artificial reproduction was born; thereafter, more and more giant pandas born of artificial reproduction are being bred in zoos. Now, the population of pandas born of artificial reproduction exceeds that of pandas born in the wild. Between the 1950s to the early 1980s, 24 giant pandas had been given by the national leaders of China to zoos of nine countries as national gifts. However, from the 1990s, giant pandas in other countries mainly come from joint research programs with the Chinese giant panda institutes, and the ownership of all these giant pandas belong to China. From 1936 when the first giant panda was exhibited in America, 53 zoos and 7 natural reserves of other countries have bred giant pandas, totaling a number of 519 (284 captured or saved wild giant pandas and 235 pandas born of artificial reproduction). At present, 32 of these foreign or domestic institutes still have giant pandas, but only Beijing Zoo, Chengdu Zoo and China Giant Panda Protection and Research Center have more than 10 giant pandas each.

Group of manual breeding includes the panda that once was manually bred. China Giant Panda Protection and Research Center began the manual breeding of giant panda in 1980, and then moved to its newly-built base at Taoheping in 1983. In its beginning years, the main task of the center was to rescue sick and famine-striken pandas, and meanwhile to conduct research on artificial reproduction. During the 11 years from 1980 to 1990, the center had obtained 18 giant pandas for manual breeding (4 giant pandas, a male and three females, were moved out). In 1986, the first panda cub was born successfully. Since 1991, the focus of the research center was turned to the artificial reproduction of giant pandas manually bred, and a panda-reproduction tackling plan was launched.  At present, China Giant Panda Protection and Research Center has the largest manually-bred giant panda group.

A history of Breeding Pandas
Artificial Reproduction and its Achievement