But Sunday’s update was not all bad news.
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According to PBS, The World Wildlife Fund, whose logo is a giant panda, called the news a great moment for conservationists. The number of pandas in the wild in southern China has grown significantly this century: up to 1,864 in 2014 from 1,596 a decade earlier, according to official figures. The Giant Panda then moved up from Rare to Endangered in 1990 as its population began to rebound.
To continue assisting the vulnerable animal, especially as climate change threatens the panda’s bamboo habitat, the IUCN says it’s critical that forests in China are protected.
“Illegal hunting and habitat loss are still major threats driving many mammal species towards extinction”, noted Carlo Rondinini, coordinator of the mammal assessment at Sapienza University of Rome.
They join the Western Gorilla, Bornean Orangutan and Sumatran Orangutan as members of that group, while the remaining two, the Chimpanzee and Bonobo, are now listed as endangered.
“And thus panda population is projected to decline, reversing the gains made during the last two decades”, the report said.
“For over fifty years, the giant panda has been the globe’s most beloved conservation icon as well as the symbol of WWF”.
The reclassification is a recognition of cumulative work, and is solid proof that investing in the conservation of a species can be done, and is beneficial to everyone.
Efforts by China, which claims the giant panda as its national animal, have brought its numbers back from the brink.
The latest census in 2014 found that there were 1,864 giant pandas alive in the wild.
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A smaller branch of the Eastern gorilla family the mountain gorilla – has fared better with the population rising to 880 from perhaps 500 in Rwanda, Uganda and eastern Democratic Republic of Congo. The WCS also noted that there are few Grauer’s Gorillas in captivity so if it were to become extinct in the wild it would be near impossible to save. It’s nearly impossible to account for every single plant and animal on the planet, but the World Wildlife Fund estimates anywhere between 200 and 100,000 species go extinct every year. The improved status does show that the government’s effort to help conserve the panda have been effective.
