The giant panda is the best known, and most loved of endangered species. It is one of the
9 most endangered species. In Chinese, the panda is referred to as Xiongmao, which means “the
giant bear cat.” The panda was thought to be related to the raccoon family, but it seems that it is
more related to the bear family. Unlike bears, the panda does not hibernate, and can not walk on
its back legs. It is shaped like a bear, with thick coarse fur that is white except for black patches
around the legs, chest , shoulders, eyes and ears. The panda has a layer softer and finer fur that
grows beneath the outer coat which protects them from the cold, moist climates that they live in.
An average panda is 5 feet (1.52m) tall, and weighs around 200 pounds (90.9 kg). When panda
cubs are born they weigh 90-130 gm, and have very little fur, and are very delicate. The
maturation is slow, and weaning starts after 6 months. The cubs stay with their mothers for
around a year, until the next mating season, when they are driven off. The pandas live solitary
lives, except for the brief mating season which lasts about 6 weeks. Their diet consists of bamboo
shoots, but they eat other plants too. The pandas eat for about 16 hours a day, and eat up to 40
pounds (18.2 kg) of bamboo per day. They have a digestive system of a carnivore, which has
adapted to the harsh, tough bamboo shoots. The panda has strong large jaws and molars to crush
the bamboo, and a thick esophagus and stomach lining to protect them from the splinters. They
have developed flexible forepaws that work like opposable thumbs, which have helped them to be
able to maneuver and grasp bamboo branches, leaves, etc. better. The pandas are found in 6
remote forest regions in the Sichuan Province of Central China. Most of these forest regions are
at high elevations ranging from 4 to 11 thousand feet (1219-3352.8 m). The natural home range
of the giant panda is quite small relative to other bears (may be only 1.5 miles (2.4 km)).
There are less than 1000 pandas in the world toady. There are four major threats affecting
the pandas today. The first one is habitat destruction. China’s population keeps on growing, and
the people are moving into the forest regions for timber, agricultural lands and pastures. The
pandas habitat has shrunk by 50% over the last 15 years. They live in 11,000 km in 6 isolated
areas, and their movement is restricted. Another problem is the flowering cycle of the bamboo,
their main diet. At regular intervals, ranging from 10 to over 100 years, the bamboo comes into
flower over large areas, and then dies. Before the pandas were able to move to regions where the
bamboo still hadn’t flowered, but now they can’t and they are left without a food supply, and
starve. It takes one year for the bamboo to regenerate from a seed, but it takes up to 20 years
before it can support a panda population. The next problem is poaching. Panda skins are very
valuable, and they sell for thousands of dollars in the black markets. Another problem is that
pandas sometimes get caught in traps that are meant for other animals, and they die. The panda
has a slow reproductive cycle, and there has been low success in breeding in captivity, which
lessens its chances of regenerating the species. Wild living pandas have been caught for captive
breeding, and zoo loans. The WWF (World Wildlife Fund) opposes short term loans which
attract zoo attendance, but are stressful to the pandas. WWF says that long term loans to
qualified zoos can be minimally disruptive to the pandas, provided that only captive raised animals
are loaned and that proceeds support giant panda field programs and not just captive breeding.
The giant panda is also protected under CITES (Convection on International Trade in
Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora), and each state is responsible to follow CITES.
China is trying hard to conserve and regenerate the panda.
China has recently approved a 10 year plan to refurbish existing reserves, create new ones,
and construct corridors between them, which will allow for more interaction between pandas,
which would mean more chances of reproduction, and less of inbreeding. The panda is the
international symbol for WWF. WWF started working on a panda conservation in China in 1980.
The first things that they did was to find out more about the panda and their habitat, since there
was little known before. WWF contributed to the construction costs of a research laboratory and
captive breeding centre at Wolong, which is China’s biggest panda reserve. The laboratory and
captive breeding centre were established in 1984, and it also serves as a base for scientific work,
now run by Chinese scientists. In 1985, WWF activities broadened to include a survey of the
entire range of the panda to provide estimates of their distribution, and population size. Also
training courses and provisions of equipment for guards, scientists and managers were provided,
as well as a preparation of a program outlining what was needed to save the panda. This program
for the Conservation of the Panda and its Habitat was completed in 1989, and the US %52 million
Panda Management Plan has recently been approved by the Chinese government. The main
components of the program are:
Join the WWF and help protect endangered species and habitats and prevent the illegal
trade in animal products. For more information on illegal trade in panda skins write to:
TRAFFIC International,
World Conservation Monitoring Centre
219c Huntingdon Road
Cambridge CB3 0DL
U.K.
For more information about the pandas go to:
Panda web
page,
Canadian World Wildlife Fund,
World Wildlife Fund,
Cyberpanda (list of panda
websites)
