Quake jeopardizes endangered pandas

BEIJING, June 13 (UPI) -- Ninety percent of China's endangered pandas are in jeopardy after May's massive earthquake destroyed their last remaining habitat, scientists said.

On top of slow reproduction rates and a threatened food supply, Chinese officials said the earthquake created an uncertain future for 1,400 of the last 1,590 pandas living in the wild, The Times of London reported Friday.

"Their living environment is completely destroyed. Massive landslides and large scale damage to forests triggered by last month's earthquake are threatening the existence of wild pandas," Yan Xun, an official at the State Forestry Administration.

The May 12 earthquake cut off access to large portions of mountainous areas, including China's largest panda breeding center in Wolong, the British newspaper said.

Yan said it was almost certain that the earthquake claimed pandas among its victims.

"There must have been wild pandas crushed to death during the quake and in the aftershocks," he said. "But we do not have the number."