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.
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There’s good news regarding the world’s most vulnerable wildlife species: the giant panda has been reclassified from “Endangered” to “Vulnerable” on the global list of animals nearing extinction, WWF reports.
The giant panda has been taken off the endangered species list after decades of conservation efforts.
With a total population estimated to be below 5,000 across both its subspecies, there are now around 3,800 eastern lowland gorillas (down 77pc). 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.
“Though there are still some problems waiting to be tackled, the situation of pandas is generally good”, Wei added.
The report warned, however, that although better forest protection has helped increase panda numbers, climate change is predicted to eliminate more than 35 percent of its natural bamboo habitat in the next 80 years, potentially leading to another decline. The IUCN list includes 82,954 plant and animal species and is updated every four years.
Grauer’s Gorilla, one of the Eastern Gorilla subspecies, has experienced a fall in population from 16,900 individuals in 1994 to an estimated 3,800 previous year. “The Chinese government’s plan to expand existing conservation policy for the species is a positive step and must be strongly supported to ensure its effective”. “There is no justifiable reason to downgrade the listing from endangered to threatened”.
The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) declared that the giant panda’s status on the Red List of Threatened Species can now be shifted, as the species has seen a 17% increase in its population. A subspecies Grauer’s gorilla moved to “critically endangered” status because of the extinction risk of its disappearing from the planet’s wildlife nature. The creatures’ population rapidly declined during the 1980s and early 1990s due to poaching, from almost a million to about 70,000; their current population is estimated to be between 100,000 and 150,000.
The world’s largest living primate, the Eastern gorilla, has been listed as under threat of extinction in the annual Red List of endangered species.
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The latest estimates show a giant panda population of 1,864 adult giant pandas.
