China plans to end the inbreeding of giant pandas as soon as the captured number reaches 500, and focus more on increasing the quality of stock, the National People's Congress deputy announced during the sidelines of the ongoing two sessions.

"Now it is not difficult to get pandas to reproduce. At our center, almost all baby pandas survive, as long as they are healthy at birth," Huo Tong, director of the Research Center of Chengdu Research Base of Giant Panda Breeding, said.

The number of captive pandas in China has increased to 471, up from the 375 at the end of 2013. Meanwhile, the total number of wild pandas fall at around 1,864, Hou, dubbed as "panda mama" because of her breakthrough on panda breeding technology, said.

She further revealed that they plan to maintain the current growth rate or lower it after reaching the target. Moreover, China is also planning to shift its focus and attend more to the biodiversity of captive pandas when they reach 500, a figure believed to be safe enough for the giant panda to maintain its population within sufficient biodiversity.

Huo said that they plan to focus on improving the captive panda's' genetic quality and fully safeguard panda biodiversity. "Captive pandas will get stronger, have better reproductive capabilities, and survive better when they are sent back to the wild."

China will also encourage the breeding of panda with valuable genetic information and limit breeding of those that already have too many cubs. Usually, a male panda mates with several female pandas to help increase the number and chance of reproduction.

"We have been shifting the focus from quantity of pandas to quality for some time now. I think more panda breeding teams across the country will follow this trend," Huo noted.