Rare wild giant panda rescued in China

A giant panda - rarest member of the bear family - suffering from cold and lung infections has been rescued from the wild in China's Sichuan Province, an official said today.
The panda, a 16-year-old male, was found on November 30 lying in a gully in the wild in Baoxing County in Ya'an, Sichuan Province, staff with the China Research and Conservation Centre of the Giant Panda said.
"It was producing a lot of mucus and has a lung infection. At 16-years-old, it has entered its senior years, but its health remains stable," said Wang Chengdong, a veterinarian who examined the animal.

The panda also has mouth and nose injuries, which doctors suspect resulted from tussling with other animals, state-run Xinhua news agency reported.
It has been taken to the center's Dujiangyan base, where it will be anesthetised and receive medical examination.
Only 1,864 giant pandas live in the wild, mostly in the Chinese provinces of Sichuan and Shaanxi.

The average life span of a giant panda is 25 years.
Looked upon as the ambassador for all endangered species, giant panda is a well-recognised symbol of international wildlife conservation.
The giant panda is currently threatened by continued habitat loss, human persecution, among others. Its dietary specialisation, habitat isolation, and reproductive constraints have led to a perception that this is a species at an "evolutionary dead end", destined for deterministic extinction in the modern world.