Whilst the giant panda population is on the increase, the IUCN has changed the status of previously abundant animal species to either “endangered” or “near threatened” due to illegal hunting and habitat loss.
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“Previously listed as Endangered, The Giant Panda is now listed as Vulnerable, as its population has grown due to effective forest protection and reforestation”, The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) announced on Sunday. Climate change is expected to ruin more than 35 percent of their bamboo habitat in the next 80 years, which will cause a decline and basically eliminate decades of effort, according to the IUCN. Four of them (Eastern Gorilla, Western Gorilla, Bornean Orangutan and Sumatran Orangutan) are critically endangered, while the other two (chimpanzee and the bonobo) are both considered endangered. According to the report, the population of the animal has gone up to 1,864 in 2014 from 1,596 in 2004 – a 16% rise – because of the work done by several conservation agencies that restored the animal’s natural habitat.
The eastern lowland gorilla, Earth’s largest living primate, has been downgraded from “endangered” to “critically endangered”, the IUCN said in a statement.
“For over fifty years, the giant panda has been the globe’s most beloved conservation icon as well as the symbol of WWF”, said the general director of the WWF, Marco Lambertini.
Experts warned, however, that the good news for pandas could be short-lived.
Since then we’ve been working with the government on initiatives to save giant pandas and their habitat, including helping to establish an integrated network of giant panda reserves and wildlife corridors to connect isolated panda populations.
The pair’s first three cubs live at China’s Chengdu Research Base of Giant Panda Breeding.
The Chinese government and global conservation groups and zoos have joined hands, and their collaborations thus brought giant pandas to zoos across the world.
“To see the Eastern gorilla – one of our closest cousins – slide towards extinction is truly distressing”, says Inger Andersen, IUCN Director General in a press release. “Therefore, we’re not being alarmist by continuing to emphasize the panda species’ endangered status”. The institution added that national surveys serve as evidence of successful conservation.
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It looks like the Labor Day weekend was also a chance for pandas to celebrate.
