Population

Scientists currently estimate the population of the giant panda at only

1,600, making pandas a seriously endangered species. There are approximately
200 in captivity in reserves, zoos and wild life parks. Four zoos in the US
currently have pandas; San Diego, Memphis, Atlanta and Washington D.C.
Pandas are also found in zoos in Japan, Hong Kong, Thailand, Taiwan, Mexico,
France, Spain, Austria and coming soon to Australia. Zoos outside of China must
lease the animals from the Chinese government. This money is used for
preservation of the wild pandas.

Species
After years of debate, scientists have determined through DNA testing that
the giant panda is actually a member of the bear family. It was once though that
the panda might be of the raccoon family. The scientific name of the panda is
Ailuropoda Melanoleuca.

Food/Diet
Pandas are classified as carnivores; however their diet is closer to that of
herbivores. Carnivore is an animal that eats mostly meat where an herbivore is
an animal that eats mostly plants.
The pandas’ diet consists almost entirely of bamboo stalks, shoots and
roots. They eat from 25 to 40 pounds per day. There are about 25 different types
of bamboo.
When available, pandas will eat fish, flowers and small animals. Pandas in
captivity also receive milk, eggs, ground meat and specially formulated vitamin
bread. Apples and carrots are a favorite treat of pandas.
Since the pandas’ digestive system is not very efficient, they must
consume large quantities of bamboo every day, in order to obtain the nutrition
they need. Young pandas can be prone to digestive problems.
Pandas eat for up to 14 hours a day. Their unique paws make it possible
for them to hold the bamboo and bite the stalks. They generally eat in a sitting
position, but also like to snack while lying on their backs.
The puffy cheeks that make the pandas appear so adorable are actually
powerful muscles that enable the pandas to chew through even the toughest
bamboo stalks.
Unlike other bears, the pandas do not store fat and therefore do not
hibernate. Consequently they are constantly in search of food.
One problem for wild pandas is that the bamboo species flowers and dies.
It then takes several years for the bamboo to recover. In the past, pandas would
migrate to other areas in search for new plants. Now with their range fragmented
this is often difficult.
Pandas drink water from the rivers and streams in their mountain homes.

Appearance
Pandas are known around the world for their unique black and white
appearance. Pandas resemble other bears in their shape, but have very
distinctive markings. All pandas have black patches around their eyes, and black
ears on a white head. Their legs are black and there is a black band across their
backs. Their mid sections are also white. It is very difficult to tell pandas apart
since their markings are basically the same on all animals. The panda caretakers
can identify individual pandas by small markings around their mouth or muzzle.
Panda fur is coarse, dense and somewhat oily. Their thick fur acts like a
raincoat to keep the panda warm in the cool moist climate of the mountain
forests.
Unlike other bears pandas are slow moving and seldom move faster than
a walk. They appear clumsily in their movement.

Paws
The front paws of a panda are very different from other bears due to a
special bone found in their wrists. The panda’s sixth toe, an opposable thumb is
used for grasping bamboo. The panda uses this bone in same way humans use
their thumbs, mainly for grasping food

Sense of Smell
Pandas leave scent marks in their territories. The scent marks serve as a
major form of communication. Pandas can determine from the scent if another
panda is in the area, including if the other panda is male or female, how recently
they left their scent and in the case of female if they are in a reproductive period.
To mark their location, pandas will back up to a tree and rub their scent
glands on the tree, then use their tail to spread the scent. Some pandas,
particularly males will back up on the tree until they are virtually doing a
handstand in order to place their scent higher on the tree.

Vocalizations
Pandas can make 11 distinct vocalizations. This indicates highly evolved
communications, which allow them to communicate with other pandas. Their
vocalizations can convey many emotions including distress, pain, or friendship.
A bark is used to ward off an enemy.
Cubs make a very loud squeaky cry.

Reproduction
Breeding maturity in the pandas is generally between four and eight years.
Females breed only once a year, in the spring. Pandas tend to have a low
reproductive rate, partly because the females only ovulate two of three days a
year. In the wild the pandas use scent and calls to locate a mate during the
reproduction period.
Fragmentation of the panda habitat is a major problem in the reproduction
of wild pandas. When towns, roads, power lines prevent the free movement from
one area to another the male panda can not reach the female.
Pandas nest on the ground or in hollow trees, giving birth approximately
100 to 150 days after they have mated. Hollow trees are becoming scarcer thus
creating another problem for breeding.
 Females give birth to one or two cubs. Triplets are extremely rare. If twins
are born, usually only one survives in the wild. The mother will select the stronger
of the cubs and the weaker will die. It is thought that the mother can not produce
enough milk for two cubs since she does not store fat.
Cubs will stay with their mothers for about two years, thus females only
reproduce every other year.
Many zoos have tried to breed pandas, with only limited success. The
breeding centers in China use both natural mating and artificial insemination.

Cubs
Like all bears, panda babies are called cubs. Newborn cubs weight 4 to 8
ounces and are about 6 to 8 inches long, about the size of a stick of butter. They
are born pink, with almost no hair, and blind. At about 1 week they begin to
develop their distinctive black and white markings and at about 5 to 7 weeks they
start to open their eyes.
The mother holds the cub to her chest, much like a human mother. In size,
compared to their mothers, panda cubs are one of the smallest newborns.
Panda cubs are especially vulnerable since Pandas don't den and hibernate as
other bears do. In the wild, Pandas nest in hollow tree trunks or caves. The
newborns won't be able to even stand on their own for nearly 4 months. Some-
times new mothers do not seem to know how to take care of their cubs. In
captivity, they are then raised by caretakers using incubators in the nurseries at
the Panda Reserves.
When twins are born, mother pandas cannot usually care for both cubs. In
the wild the mother will select the stronger of the two cubs. At the Panda
Reserves the caretakers in the nursery leave one cub with the mother for her to
care for and place one in the nursery in an incubator. In the nursery, the staff
hand feed the cub and stay with them 24 hours a day, everyday. After about a
week, the cubs are exchanged or “swapped” so both cubs will bond with their
mother and receive her care. The mother accepts both babies, but only one at a
time. This process of exchanging the cubs, which was developed at the Wolong
Panda Center, allows both of the cubs to survive in captivity. The Wolong Panda
Center now has a 90% survival rate with captive born cubs, due in large part to
their method used to raise twins.
At one year the cubs weigh between 70 to 80 pounds.

Activities
Older pandas spend most of their time eating or sleeping, but younger
pandas like to play. They play with other pandas, running, chasing each other
and climbing trees, and tumbling on the ground. Pandas are truly "roly poly"
creatures when they play.
In captivity they like "toys" which must be very sturdy and durable to stand
up to their large teeth and powerful jaws.
The pandas are well suited to their environment. They can swim in the
mountain streams and enjoy the winter snow.
Habitat
The Giant Panda was once widespread in southern and eastern China,
Vietnam and Myanmar (Burma). Today the panda is limited to the mountains in a
few Chinese provinces in southwestern China. Most of the pandas are in China’s
Sichuan Province, but they are also found in Shaanxi and Gansu provinces.
Their range is along the eastern rim of the Tibetan Plateau.
Giant pandas do not have a permanent den and do not hibernate. In the
winter they will seek shelter in hollow trees.
The Giant Panda has lived for centuries in coniferous forests with dense
undergrowth of bamboo at elevations of 5,000 to 11,000 feet. Rain or dense mist
throughout the year shrouds these remote forests in heavy clouds. In the winter
snow is common.
Today, these forests are under attack by dramatic increases in human
population. Agriculture, ranching, logging, trapping, and human settlement
dramatically threaten their habitat. Previously they lived at lower elevations but
farming and clearing of the forest have pushed them higher into the mountains.
The panda’s primary food source, bamboo is decreasing. Bamboo grows
under the shade cover of the large fir trees. Logging and clearing the land for
agricultural uses is a major factor in the reduction of bamboo.
The impact of rapid population growth has seen the destruction of
significant panda habitat. In an effort to defend the panda, the Chinese
government enforces a logging ban in the panda reserves.
The 8.0 earthquake of 2008 was in Sichuan Province, home to the Giant
Pandas. The quake buried much of the pandas’ bamboo under rock and mud
slides
Today there are 40 panda reserves in China. These reserves need to be
connected via corridors in order to reduce isolation and fragmentation of the
panda population. Villages and human activities now block open range for
migration. The fragmentation of panda areas is one problem with their mating.
Another problem related to the fragmentation of the panda areas is that
the bamboo will flower and then die off about every 20 years. When this occurs
the pandas need to migrate to a new area. There have been reports of pandas
starving when they are unable to find bamboo in new areas.
The destruction of the pandas’ natural habitat, the bamboo forests and
expanding human populations are the main threats to the giant panda.

Earthquake of 2008
The May 12th 2008 earthquake epicenter was just a few miles from the
Wolong Panda Center. Aftershocks continued for days, in a 24 hour period 178
aftershocks were monitored in the quake zone. There were approximately 70,000
deaths from the quake, 20,000 missing and 375,000 injured. 1.4 million quake
survivors were evacuated.
Five staff members of the Wolong Nature Reserve were killed. One
panda, Mao Mao was killed by the collapse of the exterior wall in her enclosure.
Xiao Xiao escaped from his enclosure and still listed as “missing”. Another panda
died following the earthquake when roads were blocked and he could not reach
medical care
Qing Qing was injured when her enclosure collapse on her, but was
treated and is doing well now.
Wild pandas certainly died as a result of the earthquake but no estimates
to the number are available. Several pandas have been coming down from the
mountains in search of food. One wild panda has starved due to the destruction
of the bamboo.
Devastation to the bamboo as a result of the earthquake will continue for
many years.
The earthquake definitely increased the challenges for this fragile
endangered species.

Status
A study in 2004 by the Chinese Department of Forestry estimated the
current population of the wild Giant Pandas at approximately 1,600. There are
also about 200 pandas in captivity.
Pandas are on the World Conservation Union’s Red List of Threatened
Animals. The U.S. Endangered Species Act (ESA) protects giant pandas, as
does the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES).
While hunting and poaching have been reduced due to strict laws by the Chinese
government, accidental trapping of pandas in traps set for other animals posses
a serious problem. Low birth rates and problems with reproduction also limit the
numbers.
The future of the panda is interwoven with the Chinese people. New
advances in environmentally responsible farming, high yield crops to reduce
logging, and population control efforts will all help the pandas.
The Chinese Government has several projects for reforesting hillsides,
protecting grasslands and nature reserves for the pandas. There are also plans
to pay farmers to turn cropland back to forest and to establish commercial tree
farms to replace logging.
A replanting project to restore the bamboo damaged in the 2008 earthquake is
currently underway in the Sichuan Province.
The outlook for the giant pandas is linked to aggressive conservation
efforts as well as successful captive breeding. Biological diversity and
sustainability are essential.

Conclusion
Human population, in the panda’s native region has resulted in a dramatic
degradation of the panda's habitat and food supply. The biodiversity of the region
is at significant risk.
This magnificent animal, a survivor of the ice age and centuries beyond, is
now in danger, grave danger, of becoming extinct. The survival of each living
animal becomes crucial to the survival of the species; each animal, those in
captivity and in the wild, must be attended to on a daily basis if they are sick or
injured. Without proper medical equipment and medicines, pandas will die and
each death brings us one step closer to a world without these unique creatures;
one step closer to the destruction of yet another species and its eco-system.
The sustainability of the Giant Panda is at a critical point. We must work to
save the panda in order to allow the world the continuing benefit of one of its
most extraordinary assets.