Giant pandas and their fans got some good news Sunday, as the World Wildlife Fund announced the beloved black-and-white bears are no longer considered endangered.
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Following decades of conservational work, the Giant Panda has successfully climbed off of the IUCN’s “endangered” animal list…
But, this weekend’s report also brought bad news.
Among other changes, the IUCN said the population of plains zebra in Africa had fallen to about 500,000 animals from 660,000, also because of hunting for their meat and stripy skins. The WWF has for years been working to develop and establish panda reserves and to set up sustainable livelihoods for the animals.
This shift is staggering and more than enough to officially declare a species critically endangered.
At the end of 2015, 1,864 giant pandas were in the wild, compared with 1,100 in 2000.
“The improved status confirms that the Chinese government’s efforts to conserve this species are effective”, IUCN said in a statement. Worldwide groups and the Chinese government have worked to save wild pandas and breed them at enormous cost, attracting criticism that money could be better spent saving other animals facing extinction.
The IUCN director general, Inger Andersen, said: “Today is a sad day because the IUCN Red List shows we are wiping out some of our closest relatives”. “We live in a time of tremendous change and each IUCN Red List update makes us realize just how quickly the global extinction crisis is escalating”.
The organization said an estimated 5,000 eastern gorillas remain in the wild, a decline of about 70 percent over the past 20 years.
While the panda’s status has improved, other species are under increasing threat, including the Eastern gorilla that is now listed as critically endangered, just one step away from extinction, due primarily to poaching.
Through its “rent-a-panda” captive breeding program, China has also loaned some bears to zoos overseas in exchange for cash, and reinvested that money in conservation efforts.
“Chimps get by even if there is only a remnant of a forest”, Elizabeth Williamson, of the IUCN species survival commission for primates, told Reuters.
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There are thought to be fewer than 5000 eastern gorillas in the wild, with around 880 living in two isolated populations in the Democratic Republic of Congo, Rwanda and Uganda.
