Giant pandas thrive on more support
Print Edition
THE number of giant pandas living in the wild rose by 268 in the decade through 2013 to 1,864, a survey said yesterday.
The increase was due to the favorable environmental policies, which saw the bears’ habitat increase by 12 percent to 2.6 million hectares, the State Forestry Administration said.
A total of 375 giant pandas — 166 males and 209 females — were living in captivity in China at the end of 2013, an increase of 211 from 2003, the SFA said.
The implementation of a series of ecological initiatives like the grain for green project as well as wildlife protection helped boost the number of pandas, it said.
The bears are found in six mountain ranges — Qinling, Minshan, Qionglaishan, Daxiangling, Xiaoxiangling and Liangshan — which span 49 counties in Sichuan, Shaanxi and Gansu provinces.
Southwest China’s Sichuan is home to 1,347 of the bears, the survey said.
Due to collaborative research on giant pandas, 42 adults and cubs were living overseas in 12 countries as of last June.
China has collaborated with 17 zoos in Australia, Austria, Belgium, Britain, Canada, France, Japan, Malaysia, Singapore, Spain, Thailand and the United States.
The survey covered 4.4 million hectares of land and was conducted between 2011 and 2014.
The first study in 1976 found that 2,000 giant pandas were living in the wild.
The latest found that 223 wild giant pandas were “at risk.” Those bears live in 24 isolated groups and account for 12 percent of the wild population.
As a result of geographic isolation and human intervention, there are only 33 isolated groups of giant pandas. Of those, 22 groups, with less than 30 individuals, were found to be “on the brink of extinction.”
Eighteen groups with less than 10 individuals were “at extreme high risk of extinction.”
The future of another two isolated populations in south Minshan and the middle Daxiangling mountains is also in doubt due to their small size, low reproduction rate and the damage caused by the Wenchuan earthquake in 2008.
“There are outstanding conflicts between the protection of the giant pandas and their habitats, and local socioeconomic development,” said Chen Fengxue, deputy head of the SFA.
Habitat fragmentation is the major factor threatening the survival of giant pandas. The survey identified the construction of 319 hydropower plants, 1,339 kilometers of roads, 269km of high-voltage transmission lines, 984 residential areas, 479 mines and 25 tourist attractions as major disturbances to the animal’s habitat.
In some areas, a lack of funding and skilled workers have also held back protection efforts. To tackle the situation, the SFA will improve legislation, enhance captive breeding efforts, improve the patrol system and carry out further research.
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