Beijing (PTI): Giant pandas at a research base in China's earthquake-ravaged Sichuan province are on a forced diet after the devastating temblor last month damaged bamboo forests, the endangered animal's favourite food.

The magnitude 8 quake had damaged the bamboo forests in Dujiangyan, Mianyang, Jiangyou, Pingwu and Ya'an, causing food shortage for 67 pandas, an official at the Chengdu Panda Breeding Research Base said.

Bamboo had to be rationed for pandas, one of the most endangered animals in the world, when they should have eaten more during the breeding season, a breeder told the Chengdu-based Tianfu Morning Post.

Pandas were now being fed fruits, apart from bamboo. But bamboo shoots usually served during this season were missing from the daily menu, state-run Xinhua news agency said quoting the report.

"The bamboo shortage would however not last for long," Hu Jinchu, a panda expert with China Animals Institute, said. As a bamboo-rich province, there were still bamboo forests undamaged in other parts of Sichuan and new bamboo would grow up soon, Hu said.

The quake had caused great damage to China's major giant panda habitat, home to about 1,400 of them.

The State Forestry Administration said the temblor had affected 1.9 million hectares or 83 per cent of the country's total areas of the panda habitat, with 8.3 per cent being completely destroyed.