Saving the Giant Panda

Giant Pandas

Endangered Species Information

Fact: 

The Giant Panda is the rarest member of the bear family and the severe threats from humans have left fewer than 1,600 of them left in the wild! 

Background Information

The Giant Panda, Ailuropoda melanoleuca mainly live and can be found in habitats that include Temperate, Broadleaf, and Mixed forests high in the mountains of Southwestern China, where they primarily eat bamboo. They can live up to 20-30 years old in captivity. 

There are some very distinct and interesting facts about Giant Pandas:

• Newborn pandas are about the size of a stick of butter (about 1/900th the size of its mother), but can grow to weigh up to 330 pounds as adults! Despite how much they weigh, these animals are excellent tree climbers.
• Giant Pandas have the digestive systems of carnivores so they're not able to digest the plant matter in bamboo efficiently, therefore deriving little energy and protein from eating it. So to make up for this, the average giant panda has to eat around 26-84 pounds of bamboo shoots a day. Now that's a lot of bamboo!
• Unlike other bears, Giant Pandas don't hibernate. In the winter they move to lower elevations to keep warm, and travel to higher elevations in the summer to stay cool. They also can be active at any time of the day or night. 

---> Giant Pandas have evolved special features that help them eat bamboo, the food which mainly makes up their diet. They have strong jaws, large molars, and enlarged wrist bones that function as opposable "thumbs". On occasion, giant pandas are also known to eat flowers, vines, grasses, green corn, honey, and rodents. 

---> Adult giant pandas can get to a height of more than four feet long. During their March-May breeding season, females may end up breeding with multiple mates. The birthing often takes place in rock dens or hollow trees and occurs in August-September. Although one or two cubs are born, the mother only raises one.

Threats and Causes of its Decline 

• Habitat Loss: Restricted and degraded habitat is the greatest threat to Giant Pandas. Already confined to small remote areas in the mountains of China, much of their natural lowland habitat has been destroyed by farmers, development and forest clearing, forcing them further upland and reducing and fragmenting their habitat. This fragmentation of habitat is detrimental to the panda’s ability to find food.
• Food: Because they can consume up to 45 pounds of bamboo in a day, it is sometimes necessary for pandas to travel to a new location once the bamboo supply of an area is all gone. However, the displacement of their range by humans can make finding new food very difficult. Any climate changes that alter the natural range of bamboo species will make these remaining  habitats even more troubling.
• Hunting: Hunting still remains a threat to Giant Pandas. The poaching of them for their fur has declined due to the strict laws, severe penalties, and increased public awareness of their protected status. However, Giant Pandas are still sometimes killed in snares or traps set by hunters seeking other animals in the same habitat.  

Why are Giant Pandas Important!?

---Giant Pandas play a crucial role in the bamboo forests where they roam by spreading seeds and facilitating growth of vegetation. In China's Yangtze Basin where pandas live, the forests are home to a wide variety of wildlife such as dwarf blue sheep, multi-colored pheasants and other endangered species, including the golden monkey, takin and crested ibis. The panda’s habitat is at the geographic and economic heart of China, home to millions of people. By making this area more sustainable, we are also helping to increase the quality of life of local populations. Pandas bring huge economic benefits to local communities through tourism.

---So, by encouraging people to protect and save the Giant Panda, we are also preserving the rich biodiversity in its habitat. 

---The Giant Panda is a national treasure in China and has been the World Wildlife Foundation's logo since it was founded in 1961. 

---We don't want to lose these incredible, distinct creatures!

Current Conservation Efforts

Organizations like the World Wildlife Fund are doing a lot to help protect the Giant Panda for the future. The WWF was the first international conservation organization to work in China from the Chinese government's invitation. WWF’s main role in China is to assist and influence conservation decisions through information collection, demonstration of conservation approaches, communications, and capacity building.

For protecting giant pandas they strive to

• increase the area of panda habitat that's under legal protection
• create green corridors to link isolated pandas
• patrol against poaching, illegal logging, and human encroachment
• build local capacities for managing nature reserves
• & continue further research and monitoring

The WWF has also been helping with the Chinese government's National Conservation Program, preserving the giant panda and its habitat. Through this program, the panda reserves now cover more than 3.8 million acres of forest!

The Chinese government's National Conservation Management Plan for the Giant Panda and its habitat consists of specific goals and guidelines that includes: 

• Reduction of human activities in the panda habitat
• Removal of human settlements
• Modification of forestry operations
• Control of poaching
• Rehabilitation of habitat
• Management of bamboo habitat
• Extension of the panda Reserve system
• Achieving outbreeding between panda populations
• Maintaining a captive population
• Release of captive-born pandas into the wild

Overall, the major conservation efforts have been about restoring the giant panda's habitat, which is crucial to their survival for the future. 

How YOU Can Help

Researchers focusing on giant pandas still are studying how giant pandas breed in order to increase its population.

To help with this and other conservation efforts you can 

-- Adopt a panda through the WWF here: ADOPT A PANDA

--- DONATE to the WWF to help further build the giant panda's future

---Spread the word about the Giant Panda's future

--- Donate to other conservation funds supporting giant pandas

--- Speak up for Wildlife. Learn how you can BECOME AN ADVOCATE for giant pandas and other wildlife.