The giant panda has been taken off the endangered species list after decades of conservation efforts.
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China’s giant panda survey a year ago found that the species’ numbers had risen 17 percent in the past decade, with 1,864 adults living in the wild. However, the global group said that the predicted climate change may destroy more than 35% of the giant panda’s natural bamboo habitat in the next 80 years. The good news is that the population of giant panda has increased up to 17%, from 1,596 individuals in 2004 to 1,864 in 2014.
Following decades of conservational work, the Giant Panda has successfully climbed off of the IUCN’s “endangered” animal list… 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.
“To see the Eastern gorilla – one of our closest cousins – slide towards extinction is truly distressing”, said Inger Andersen, IUCN director general.
The change in status is largely credited to intensive conservation efforts by China, where the Giant Panda is native.
Over the past decade numbers have risen by almost 17 per cent in the wild and there are now around 2,000 outside of captivity.
But today, the Grauer’s gorilla (Gorilla beringei graueri, earlier called the eastern lowland gorilla) population is just 3,800, says a report that was out last spring.
“The change of the panda’s status on the Red List will help to alter the pessimistic view of the public when it comes to panda protection, as many still hold the outdated opinion that pandas are in grave danger”, Wei said. The organization has observed increased forest cover in China, providing more potential habitat to giant pandas.
Just this past weekend, a 19-year-old giant panda named Lun Lun gave birth to twin cubs at Zoo Atlanta. the mom’s second set of twins.
The news of the improvement in the species’ status comes after the birth, in captivity, of a set of panda twins in the USA.
Eastern gorillas are split up into two subspecies: Grauer’s gorilla (or the eastern lowland gorilla), and the mountain gorilla (which you may know from Gorillas in the Mist). And it has suffered a significant population decline due to illegal hunting.
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The change will lead to neglect of conservation work, and previous gains will quickly disappear, an official at the forestry administration warned.
