Serving as the mascot of a world-renowned conservation organization, building diplomatic relationships between China and the world, playing protagonists in blockbuster movies — giant pandas have done it all. The public attention and adulation these animals garner make them star attractions at zoos and have helped pump billions into tailor-made conservation programs that have successfully […]
Tag: giant panda
Giant pandas no longer endangered in the wild, China announces
Giant pandas are no longer endangered in the wild, but they are still vulnerable with a population outside captivity of 1,800, Chinese officials have said after years of conservation efforts. The head of the environment ministry’s department of nature and ecology conservation, Cui Shuhong, said the reclassification was the result of “improved living conditions and […]
Lean times leave orangutans wasting away. Habitat loss makes things worse
JAKARTA — Orangutans in Borneo have been found to physically waste away when fruit is scarce — a finding with dire implications as human-driven climate change and the destruction of their habitat put their food supply under even greater threat. In a study recently published in the journal Scientific Reports, researchers collected and analyzed urine […]
Petition: World’s Oldest Panda Dies in Captivity
The world’s oldest panda living in captivity died in December. Xin Xing, who was living at the Chongqing Zoo in western China, announced that the panda died from organ failure. In human years, the panda would have been 130 years old, per the New York Post. “On October 21, 2020, the giant panda ‘Xin Xing’ […]
China to create ‘giant’ giant panda reserve to boost wild population
China is planning to create a giant panda reserve three times the size of Yellowstone national park in the US, as part of efforts to boost the wild population of the long-endangered animal. The 10,476 sq mile (27,134 sq km) area will link up 67 existing panda reserves on six isolated mountain ranges. It is […]
Video: Panda Playing in Snow Goes Viral
A video of the Smithsonian National Zoo’s young giant panda, Bao Bao, tumbling down a snowy hill in Washington, D.C., has become a warm and fuzzy distraction amid this week’s frigid U.S. cold snap. As the year’s first snow blanketed the city on January 6, the 16-month-old female spent much of the morning playing in […]
Yangtze finless porpoise population nosedives to 1,000
The Yangtze finless porpoise population has declined to a mere 1,000 individuals, making the endangered species even more rare than the wild giant panda, the 2012 Yangtze Freshwater Dolphin Survey Report reveals. The population in the mainstream of the Yangtze River was less than half of what a similar survey found six years ago, with […]
China’s forest privatization move threatens pandas
China’s decision to open up collective forest for sale by individuals to outside interests will put 345,700 hectares or 15 percent of the giant panda’s remaining habitat at risk, warns a letter published in the journal Science. The letter, authored by a team of researchers including scientists from Conservation International and Chinese institutions, says that […]