Giant Pandas: “Not Endangered” but “Vulnerable” to extinction

Giant Pandas with their white and black coat, are admired by the world and considered as the national treasure of China.

Scientific Name: Ailuropoda mellanoleuca

Giant Pandas live in Southwest in temperate forest in mountains of China. They depend almost 99% on bamboo. They eat around 26 to 84 pounds of bamboos every day. There eating habit depend on what part of the bamboo they are eating. 

Why Endangered?

Habitat destruction is one of the main reason of decrease in population of giant Pandas. Panda’s population gets smaller and smaller since the population of China increases. Humans have took their habitats and pushed them to smaller and inhabited areas. These factors push their classification to about 1800 numbers.

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Inhabitable areas have lack of food. Pandas feed themselves on bamboos that appear on different times of the year. If one bamboo is destructive by general population then chance of eating that bamboo decreases every time it blooms. Habitat destruction also lead to lack of food. This increases the risk of starvation.

Chinese effort to repopulate bamboo forests

Government of China had taken serious action on the conservation of Giant Pandas and bamboo. There measures have positive impact on the recovery of population of giant Pandas.

Conservation Status

Currently the total number of giant Pandas living in wild is 2060. According to IUCN Red List, Giant Pandas are consider as vulnerable to extinction. Pandas can reproduce seldom, therefore it is difficult for them to increase their number from such a low point.

‘Giant Pandas are no longer “endangered” but still vulnerable’

says China

State Forestry Administration surveys have concluded that the panda population increases since the Chinese government take actions. In 2016, the IUCN re-labelled the giant panda’s status from Endangered to Vulnerable.

The latest classification upgrade “reflects their improved living conditions and China’s efforts in keeping their habitats integrated”, said Cui Shuhong, head of the Ministry of Ecology and Environment’s Department of Nature and Ecology Conservation at a news conference.

For now, while an increasing panda population is good news. Predictions says that climate changes will eliminate over 35% of the panda’s bamboo habitat in the coming 80 years.