The International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) stated that the main cause of its extinction is the illegal hunting of the meat and body parts of the biggest primate.
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Thanks to an increase in available habitat, its population rose 17% from 2004 to 2014, leading the IUCN to downgrade it from endangered to vulnerable. However, the species is still considered to be vulnerable.
One of the cutest and most popular of the endangered species just got taken off the list, according to an announcement by the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) on Sunday. There are now 67 panda reserves, which protect almost two-thirds of all wild pandas.
It was good news for pandas in the Red List, but not for Eastern lowland gorillas.
And the other bad news included in the update was the eastern gorilla’s status change to critically endangered.
That is largely down to illegal hunting in Rwanda, Uganda and the war-torn Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).
“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.
“For over fifty years, the giant panda has been the globe’s most beloved conservation icon as well as the symbol of WWF”.
The IUCN warns, however, that over 35 percent of the panda’s bamboo habitat may be destroyed in the next 80 years due to climate change, which may result in the creatures’ population declining, completely reversing these recent gains.
Plains zebras have also declined by nearly a quarter in the past 14 years as a result of illegal hunting and are now “near threatened” on the latest Red List update.
The Grauer’s gorilla population has declined by 77 percent and now features on the “critically endangered species” list.
There’s no hard data on the number of cubs in the wild, but estimates would bring the population to 2060. The non-government organisation said the re-classification proves that conversation does work and that strict laws go a long way to protect endangered animals. “Critically Endangered”, “Endangered” and “Threatened” are all classified as threatened species (IUCN 2016).
The once widespread and abundant Plains Zebra and three species of antelope found in Africa have both moved from “Least Concern” to “Near Threatened”.
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The panda population reached an estimated low of 1,000 in the 1980s due to deforestation and poaching, before officials protected its forest areas and cracked down on the skin trade.
