About 100 giant pandas in northwest China's Gansu Province are suffering from hunger because large tracts of arrow bamboo have bloomed and died.

By the end of 2004, arrow bamboo, the favorite food of giants, had blossomed on 7,420 hectares at the Baishuijiang State Nature Reserve in southern Gansu Province, a major habitat of pandas in China, according to a recent survey conducted by the nature reserve administration.

The giant panda is one of the world's most endangered species, with an estimated 1,000 living in the mountainous regions of Sichuan, Shaanxi and Gansu provinces. To protect the animal, dubbed China's "national treasure," the country has set up 33 nature reserves, covering a total area of 1.6 million hectares.

The Baishuijiang State Nature Reserve is home to more than 100 giant pandas. Currently, they are threatened by a severe food shortage in the wake of the withering bamboo. What is worse, arrow bamboo on another 1,950 hectares which blossomed in 1993 has not grown tall enough for consumption. Since it usually takes 15 years for the new plants to grow adequately to supply enough food for groups of pandas, food remains scarce for the pandas.

To help pandas tide over the difficult period, many townships in Gansu Province have set up rescue teams to care for the rare animals.

(Xinhua News Agency February 10, 2005)