Is the Giant Panda

endangered or threatened?The giant panda is listed as

endangered in the World Conservation Union's (IUCN's) Red List of Threatened Animals. There are about 1,600 left in the wild.

What is the location of the Giant Panda?

Giant pandas live in broadleaf and coniferous forests with a dense understory of bamboo, at elevations between 5,000 and 10,000 feet. Torrential rains or dense mist throughout the year characterizes these forests, often shrouded in heavy clouds.

More than 160 pandas live in zoos and breeding centers around the world, mostly in China.

In which biome is it found?

Giant pandas live in the broadleaf and coniferous forests with a dense understory of bamboo, at elevations between 5,000 and 10,000 feet. Torrential rains or dense mist throughout the year characterizes these forests, often shrouded in heavy clouds.

They have a small territory of only 1.5-2.5 square miles.

What role does the Giant Panda

play in its ecosystem?Giant panda population is

closely tied to bamboo abundance and vice versa. Pandas help to distribute the bamboo seeds over areas. However, as panda numbers dwindle so does bamboo, making it harder to find food for the panda.

It also controls the overgrowth of bamboo. Since the giant panda only digests about 20% of the dry matter they ingest, it eats anywhere from 12-38 kg of bamboo shoots per day.

What are the characteristics of this species that have put it at risk?

The Giant Panda relies on one food source, thus isolating its habitat to small, specific areas. In prior times, it would migrate to areas with a greater bamboo supply; however, human involvement has stunted such movement.

Additionally, the Giant Panda has a low reproduction rate. It is typically a solitary animal, aside from the spring mating season. To make matters worse, Giant Panda only breed every other year. Mothers typically give birth to one or two cubs at a time. Yet, in the wild, without human intervention will only care for one of their young.

What role have humans had in the decline of the Giant Panda?

The major factors contributing to habitat loss and fragmentation — the most pressing threats to the giant panda — are:

o conversion of forests to agricultural areaso medicinal herb collectiono bamboo harvestingo poachingo large-scale development activities ( such as road construction,

hydropower development, and mining.

Were these actions

purposeful, or were they

inadvertent? Do some humans

benefit from the decline, and how?

The destruction of the natural habitat of the Giant Panda was not technically purposeful, but rather ignorant. Developers dismissed the importance of the bamboo to the Giant Panda, and essentially the Giant Panda as a species. As can be expected, humans benefit from this annihilation via new homes, roads, and amenities.

Poaching certainly is purposeful and intentional. The anti-poaching regulations and limited populations have merely increased the value of a

What is being done to protect and restore this species?

The US Fish and Wildlife Service added the Giant Panda to their Endangered List in 1984. The IUCN (The World Conservation Union) had Panda's on their Red List in both 1986 and 1988 but classed as "Rare" and not "Endangered". The ICUN changed the Pandas classification to "Endangered" in 1990.

The WWF has stimulated restoration solutions such as:o increasing nature reserves,o creating green corridors to link isolated pandas,o patrolling against poaching and illegal logging,o building local capacities for nature reserve management, ando continued research and monitoring.

The People’s Republic of China has also instated strict legal consequences for any harm caused to the Giant Panda.