If the pregnancy comes to term, the result will be the world's first cloned panda. Chen first proposed cloning a giant panda in March 1997, hoping to do so within three to five years. The body cells used were from the bone muscle, womb epidermis and mammary gland, with the mammary cells achieving the best results, said Xinhua. Cloning between two different species differs from cloning in which both body and egg cells were taken from the same species, such as the process was used by a British scientist to clone Dolly the sheep in 1997. Inter-species cloning is more difficult, but biologists saw cloning within the same species is not practical to reproduce rare animals because their numbers are too small to obtain eggs.
Giant pandas mate only once a year, producing at most two cubs, only one of which usually survives.
The pandas do not like to breed in captivity, and zoos have used artificial insemination to produce panda cubs. Giant pandas are found only in the mountains of central China - in small isolated areas of the north and central portions of the Sichuan Province, in the mountains bordering the southernmost part of Gansu Province, and in the Qinling Mountains of the Shaanxi Province. Giant pandas live in dense bamboo and coniferous forests at altitudes of 5,000 to 10,000 feet. The mountains are shrouded in heavy clouds with torrential rains or dense mist throughout the year. In most of the areas in which they still roam wild, they must compete with farmers who work the river valleys and the lower slopes of the mountains.