by Ma Lie

It takes a male panda 10 days to win the heart of a female, according to observations made at a nature reserve in northwest China’s Shaanxi province.

Staff at Shaanxi Foping National Nature Reserve took pictures of wild pandas mating after tracking them for a number of days during the annual breeding season, which occurs in March and April.

On March 26, they discovered a male courting a female who was spurning his advances by hiding in a tree, about 15 meters above him.

She stayed in the tree without eating while the male kept vigil at its base, never straying further than 50 meters away from the object of his affections.

After 10 days of waiting, the male pandas was finally rewarded on April 4 when the female came down from the tree to mate.

Reserve staff have witnessed pandas mating three times so far this breeding season.

According to a report on the animals issued by the provincial government last March, there were 345 wild pandas in Shaanxi province’s Qinling Mountain area, which was a 26.4 percent increase from the previous survey.

Giant pandas are an endangered species that are only found in China and the Shaanxi reserve, located in the province’s Foping county and established on Jan 1, 1980, is designed to protect the animals as well as the forests and other wildlife.

Covering a total area of 35,000 sq km, the reserve has within its boundaries 1,580 plant and 265 animal species, including the giant panda, golden monkey, takin and leopard which are listed as first-class national-level protected wild animals.