The giant panda, which is China’s national animal, is also the symbol for World Wildlife Fund (WWF), which described the news as “exciting”.
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Four of the six great apes, including the Eastern Gorilla, the largest living primate and one of our closest cousins, are now Critically Endangered and just one step away from extinction due to illegal hunting, according to a new report.
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.
Revered in Chinese culture, the giant panda was once widespread throughout southern China.
The success is due to Chinese efforts to recreate and repopulate bamboo forests.
The IUCN report said China’s plan to expand its conservation effort for pandas “is a positive step and must be strongly supported to ensure its effective implementation”.
A leading worldwide group has taken the giant panda off its endangered list thanks to decades of conservation efforts, but China’s government discounted the move on Monday, saying it did not view the status of the country’s beloved symbol as any less serious. As Science Alert notes, pandas need to eat up to 14 hours a day – or up to 27.5 pounds of bamboo – in order to survive.
However the IUCN said climate change was predicted to wipe out more than a third (35 per cent) of the panda’s bamboo habitat, which could reverse the gains.
“China has given a wonderful example of what can happen when a government is committed to conservation”. The population of Eastern Gorillas is now thought to be below 5,000 individuals, a 70% decline in the last 20 years.
The second subspecies of Eastern Gorilla – the Mountain Gorilla (G b beringei) -is faring better and has increased in number to around 880 individuals.
The latest updated Red List of Threatened Species also put the Western Gorilla, Bornean Orangutan and Sumatran Orangutan in the Critically Endangered category, while the Chimpanzee and Bonobo were listed as Endangered.
The IUCN’s Red List estimates that there are now approximately 1864 adult pandas in China, and cub numbers (which are rough estimates) bring that figure up to 2060 in total.
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“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”, said Andersen.
