The latest census in 2014 found that there were 1,864 giant pandas alive in the wild.
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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.
The giant panda is now classified as “vulnerable”, CNN reported Monday.
All that said, climate change is still a major threat to the panda, with over a third of the animal’s bamboo habitat at risk of elimination thanks to the phenomenon.
“Critical endangered status will raise the profile of this gorilla subspecies and bring attention to its plight”, Andrew Plumptre, the lead author of the new listing, said in a statement.
The wild giant panda population is fragmented into 33 isolated groups, with some having fewer than 10 animals, which limits the gene pool for reproduction. The Chinese government’s plan to expand existing conservation policy for the species is a positive step and must be strongly supported to ensure its effective implementation.
Earlier this year, the Wildlife Conservation Society and Fauna and Flora International released a report documenting a77-percent drop in the number of Grauer’s gorillas over the span of a single generation, from an estimated 17,000 individuals in 1995 to 3,800 today.
Bushmeat hunting and civil war in the Democratic Republic of Congo are major drivers of the collapse of the population of Grauer’s gorillas, researchers say.
Some of the apes Andersen is refering to include the western gorilla, the Bornean orangutan and Sumatran orangutan, which have also been classed as critically endangered.
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The addition of the Eastern Gorilla population to the critically endangered list means that four of the six great apes in the world are now listed as critically endangered, the organization said. They have longer arms than the mountain gorilla and shorter hair and teeth. “We live in a time of tremendous change and each IUCN Red List update makes us realise just how quickly the global extinction crisis is escalating”. He added that conservation action does work and they have increasing evidence of it and it is their responsibility to improve their efforts to turn the tide and protect the future of the planet.
