Giant pandas living in the wild in the misty mountains of southwest China are facing a possible food shortage as bamboo plants, their staple diet, near the end of their lifespan, state media said yesterday. Yang Xuyu, deputy head of the Wild Animal Preservation Station of the provincial forestry bureau, responsible for monitoring 24,000 hectares of bamboo, issued the warning at a panda breeding conference recently.

The mountainous region witnessed extensive blossoming of the arrow bamboo, the pandas? favorite, in 1984 and 1987, when the plants flowered, seeded and died. Hundreds of the endangered animals died of starvation.

The giant panda is one of the world?s most endangered species and is found only in China. An estimated 1,600 wild pandas live in nature reserves in Sichuan, Gansu and Shaanxi provinces.