The base was set up in 1987 when 6 pandas were rescued from the wild. Since then no pandas have been taken from the wild, but through breeding and exchange programs they now have over 120 pandas.
124 Panda cubs have been born there in 85 litters, of which 88 survived, which is a big improvement on the less than half of new born cubs that survive in the world. In 2013, 20 pandas were born at the centre with 17 surviving, which represents a big step forward in the research that's been done and ability to care for the new born cubs.
Chengdu's base covers 200 hectares of land, which helps out other endangered species in the area, particularly the red panda and the golden monkey. Because of the size of the base it is able to support the other breeding/research centres and reserves around it, which is important as a vast majority of the wild population are located close to Chengdu, which is why it's known as 'the panda capital of the world'.
Woolong Research Facility
Pandas are notoriously hard to breed, and the common consensus is that this is because they're too lazy to reproduce, or naturally don't have a very high libido. This has been disproven by scientists recently, and we now know that the females are only on heat 3 days a year. But even during these three days there's no guarantee that a male will be around, as male and female pandas tend not to get along the rest of the time, which is why they generally live in solitude.
Like humans, some females have difficulty conceiving, both in the wild and in breeding centres. Woolong Research Facility has started using IVF on these pandas, and in 2009 the first test-tube panda was born there.
Panda Porn
There have been arguments made that pandas kept in captivity aren't exposed to the natural behaviours of wild pandas, which can sometimes lead to difficulties in the logistics of breeding, as in the wild pandas would see other pandas breeding and so would know what to do when it came to breeding, as the BBC clip below explains.
Because of this, some breeding centres have exposed their pandas to videos of other pandas breeding, to various successes. In one breeding and research centre reported that every time the male panda tried to mount the female she would fight him off, but after showing them the videos she didn't do this. Full article here.
Conclusions
It would seem that the breeding isn't a problem for the survival of pandas, as now that scientists understand the breeding behaviour of the pandas, they can use this to their advantage within the breeding centres.
One problem that has been raised here is that pandas are solitary animals for the vast majority of the year, and need large amounts of space each because of the quantity of bamboo they eat. When it comes to the time of year when they are able to breed they don't have a particularly high chance of interacting with each other because of how spread out they are, which makes it important that there are as many wild pandas as possible, which in turn means that as much area of forest is protected as possible.
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