Giant Pandas: A Success Story

The world's symbol for endangered species and conservation, no longer endangered.

Elephants need to see the same kind of attention that giant pandas did in order to survive. Read about their endangerment and how you can help save them from extinction.

The giant panda was classified as an endangered species in 1961 (although they weren't declared endangered by the United States until 1984 by the Fish and Wildlife Service as part of the Endangered Species Act). Happily, after 55 years of conservation work, captive breeding, and habitat protection laws, the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) announced the reclassification of giant pandas from endangered to vulnerable in the Red List of Threatened Species. IUCN based their update largely on the population increase from 1,596 in 2004 to 1,864 in 2014, not including cubs. When the update was released in 2016, panda reserves numbered 67, protecting roughly 2/3's of all wild pandas.

What is the difference between endangered and vulnerable classification?

The International Union for Conservation of Nature has a very detailed classification form that they follow. The simple version is that endangered species are at very high risk for extinction whereas vulnerable species are at a high risk for extinction. Quantifiably, this means endangered species number have experienced a 50%-70% decline in population size. Vulnerable species, however, have experienced a 30%-50% decline in population size (National Geographic).

About the giant panda

• Baby pandas are roughly the size of a stick of butter when born! That's 1/900th the size of their mothers (the World Wildlife Fund)

• Pandas are blind at birth

• They live in bamboo forests in western China mountains - most live in China's Yangtze Basin region

• Pandas exist almost entirely on bamboo and eat between 26 and 84 pounds of it per day

• They are a solitary species! Males use their extremely heightened sense of smell to avoid others but also use it to find females to mate with in the spring

Why were giant pandas endangered?

Giant pandas became endangered for several reasons, the first one being poaching. Before several laws were enacted to protect the species, hunters killed pandas for their fur as a trophy and to sell. Now, most pandas killed by hunters are done so on accident while on a hunting trip targeting another species.

More prominently a cause of endangerment, perhaps, was human encroachment on giant panda habitats. Since the species relies solely on habitats with immense amounts of bamboo, any destruction of such areas greatly affects them. The ever increasing human population is causing more habitats to be destroyed due to human development for housing, businesses, train lines and more. This distruction further isolates already distant pandas from one another, making it harder for them to find mates in the spring.

Why is it important that giant pandas were reclassified as vulnerable?

Giant pandas are a keystone species, meaning that they are essential to other species in the ecosystem. Pandas specifically spread seeds and facilitate growth of vegetation when eating bamboo. Furthermore, the panda success story means that humans can reverse their past harmful actions to the earth. We now know that we can use captive breeding for recovery and the reintroduction of a species, and potentially save an entire ecosystem in the process. On a simply monetary level, pandas bring extreme economic benefits to China due to ecotourism and to lose that profit would be a great loss for the country.

So, are we done saving giant pandas now?

Absolutely not. Despite such success, we have to be careful not to become careless. Dr. Ouyang Zhiyun discusses how infrastructure and tourism, if not managed properly, could undermine restoration improvements. He then suggests that China should connect isolated groups of pandas, which the World Wildlife Fund has already begun to do with "green strips." Green strips are pieces of the ecosystem that connect two otherwise separated areas of the same ecosystem. Zhiyun also suggests that China establishes "ecological red lines" that will physically separate pandas from society and restrict tourism in National Parks with pandas (New York Times).

The World Wildlife Fund and Pandas

The WWF, inspired by a giant panda named Chi, chose the giant panda as its logo when it was founded in 1961. They selected the logo because they thought it would appeal across all generational, cultural, and language barriers. The World Wildlife Fund was right about that and the giant panda is now a flagship species, or a "symbol for an environmental habitat movement, campaign, or issue" (National Geographic). The organization became involved with saving the giant pandas when China invited them to work with their government in conservation efforts. The WWF thus became the first international conservation organization to do this with China. Some actions that the WWF are taking to continue protecting the species are increasing the areas under legal protection, and continuing to research and monitor giant pandas in China.

Donate to the World Wildlife Fund to continue efforts to protect pandas.

Individuals can make a difference in saving endangered species. Stop doing this to help!

Sources Used:

Deamer, Kacey. “Giant Panda Is No Longer Endangered Species.” LiveScience, Purch, 6 Sept. 2016, www.livescience.com/55991-giant-pandas-no-longer-endangered.html.

“Giant Panda No Longer Endangered.” WWF, World Wildlife Fund, 4 Sept. 2016, www.worldwildlife.org/stories/giant-panda-no-longer-endangered.

“Giant Panda.” WWF, World Wildlife Fund, 2018, www.worldwildlife.org/species/giant-panda.

National Geographic Society. “Endangered Species Categories and Criteria.” National Geographic Society, 9 Nov. 2012, www.nationalgeographic.org/media/endangered/.

National Geographic Society. “Keystone Species.” National Geographic Society, 9 Oct. 2012, www.nationalgeographic.org/encyclopedia/keystone-species/.

“The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species.” Rhinoceros Sondaicus (Javan Rhinoceros), International Union for Conservation of Nature, www.iucnredlist.org/.

Quenqua, Douglas. “Pandas Are No Longer Endangered. But Their Habitat Is in Trouble.” The New York Times, The New York Times, 25 Sept. 2017, www.nytimes.com/2017/09/25/science/pandas-habitat-china.html.