WWF warns pandas may face extinction

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The World Wide Fund for Nature in Beijing is warning of a growing conflict between economic development and the protection of natural habitats of wild animals, such as China's Giant Pandas.

Professor Fan Zhiyong, Species Programme Director for the organization is concerned that housing and development for humans is encroaching on the natural habitats of wild Pandas and may lead to their extinction. Fan also says China has run a successful panda breeding programme in past years, but if these animals are all raised by people they are no longer a wild species.

Fan said, "From a scientific and technical standpoint artificial insemination and the successful use of frozen sperm will have a beneficial effect on helping the panda to survive. But if in the future the only way to see the survival of the panda as a species is to rely on the artificial insemination of frozen sperm, the extinction of this species is not far off."