Image source, Getty Images. Giant pandas are no longer classified as "endangered" - but are still "vulnerable". Chinese efforts to recreate and repopulate bamboo forests have helped pull the pandas back from brink of extinction.
You might also be interested in:. This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Related Topics. China Wildlife Pandas Wildlife conservation. You can help by donating to our conservation work today. Donate now. Archive Content Please note: This page has been archived and its content may no longer be up-to-date. Toggle navigation. Language English. Giant Pandas no longer 'endangered'.
Step away from extinction Great news! Giant pandas are no longer classified as 'endangered'. It shows that conservation efforts are working and provides hope for the world's other threatened wildlife. Pulling the panda back from the brink It's official.
The panda is on the road to recovery. For fifty years, it has been the world's most beloved conservation icon and WWF's symbol. But when takins rub against trees to relieve itchiness, they can eliminate or diminish the scent marks. According to Wang, northern Chinese boars may be even more troublesome for pandas. Both are protected in China. No official estimate of boar numbers exists, but anecdotally it appears that they outnumber takins, their range is larger, and their impact on the environment far more pronounced, he says.
Each spring, young bamboo shoots provide a valuable source of protein and nutrients for pandas, particularly for pregnant or lactating mothers. But boars also like to eat young shoots, and research shows that pandas avoid foraging in areas inhabited by boars.
Meanwhile, panda numbers increased in neighboring areas with few boars. Furthermore, boars carry diseases such as canine distemper and swine fever, which can jump to other species. Giant pandas have very few natural predators , and in the past, animals such as snow leopards, a type of wild dog called a dhole, and wolves kept takin and boar numbers in check.
But these apex predators have nearly disappeared , according to a study co-authored by William McShea , a wildlife ecologist at the Smithsonian Conservation Biology Institute, in Front Royal, Virginia. Wildlife officials lack sufficient data on either takins or boars to develop management plans that would balance their numbers and needs with those of pandas, according to Wang.
In his book The Last Panda , naturalist George Schaller described the panda as a species beset by poaching, habitat loss, and bad management. Today, poaching is rare, and logging has been all-but eliminated inside and outside reserves. They also assist conservationists and biologists by collecting vital information about the animals. Rangers usually live inside the reserves, trekking up to weeks at a time through mountainous bamboo forests to maintain camera traps and record wildlife behavior.
One measure Chinese conservationists have adopted is to breed and raise pandas in captivity with the aim of releasing them into reserves to bolster wild populations. The effort has had mixed success. So far, 14 pandas have been released, 12 of them captive-bred. Of those, nine have survived. The two others were wild pandas that had been rescued and kept in captivity. The only released panda ever confirmed to successfully breed in the wild was one of the wild rescues. Read more about pandas being reintroduced into the wild.
In late , the China Conservation and Research Center for Giant Pandas announced a plan to release three pandas in Jiangxi Province, where the animals have been extinct for at least 10, years. This would have been the first release of captive pandas outside Sichuan Province had the plan not fizzled in mid amid fierce debate among Chinese researchers and officials over the efficacy of reintroducing pandas.
Check out three places to see giant pandas in the wild.
0コメント