US-born giant panda Hua Mei has maintained her good health in China, gaining about one kilogram in the past dozen days since she arrived at her new home at the Wolong Nature Reserve, southwest China's Sichuan Province, on Feb.13.

She has fully acclimatized to the local climate and the well-balanced diet zoologists have tailored for her, according to workers at the Wolong reserve, a major research base for the endangered species.

"Our vets are carrying out routine checks on her every day, to check her breath, droppings, appetite and mood," said Wang Pengyan, vice-director of the research center. "The results show Hua Mei is healthy and in good spirits. She weighs about 95 kilos now."

Hua Mei spends most of her day in the open, eating, sleeping or walking, and seldom goes back to her cozy wooden cabin.

"She seems to enjoy the climate here, as pandas prefer coolness to warm weather," said Wang.

The night time temperature at Wolong Nature Reserve -- a natural habitat for many pandas -- is around zero Celsius, but heating facilities in Hua Mei's little cabin keep the indoor temperature at around five degrees.

The US-born panda has come to like bamboo grown in Wolong, and eats more than 10 kg a day, said Tang Yang, one of Hua Mei's keepers.

"She also eats lots of apples, carrots and biscuits," said Tang. "She's very friendly to people and comes up to us for a cuddle from time to time."

Ten days ago, when Hua Mei arrived at Wolong as the first overseas-born panda, she was so disoriented that she refused to leave her travel cage for two hours.

Hua Mei's dwelling also consists of a 120-square-meter hillside field with leafy bamboo and wild trees.

Her home was built at a cost of 60,000 yuan (about US$7,200), in a mountain valley in Bailonggou, one km from the research center.

No other wild animals live in Bailonggou as it is hemmed on three sides by mountains 3,000 meters high, with only one path to the outside world.

Hua Mei, which stands for "China America," was born in 1999 and set foot in China for the first time upon her arrival in Beijing as a VIP on Feb. 12, after a 10-hour flight. She is four and a half years old.

Though her mother Bai Yun, or "White Clouds," remained in San Diego, California, Hua Mei will meet her father Shi Shi, or "Lovely Stone," who returned last year. Bai Yun will continue to live in the United States with another male Gao Gao, or "Tall" and their one-year-old son Mei Sheng or "American Born."

Hua Mei's parents went to the United States in 1996 as part of a 12-year research cooperation program between the two nations. The male was about ten years older than the female and was repatriated last year after six years abroad.

The female gave birth to a male panda last year after living with Gao Gao, which was considered a significant contribution to the population of giant pandas.

Under the cooperation contract, cubs of pandas abroad belong to China and should be returned after they are three years old.

Altogether 24 giant pandas were gifted by China to nine countries in the 26 years from 1957 to 1982.

China has input considerable resources into protecting the endangered species. Their numbers have been depleted by low fertility, logging, poaching and the periodic withering away of their staple food, bamboo. Only approximately 1,000 giant pandas are estimated to live in the wild, all in China, while some 140 live in captivity around the world.

(Xinhua News Agency February 24, 2004)