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China's Wild Great Panda Population Grows
The population has grown by 268 despite many obstacles
The Chinese government has some good news for panda lovers.
A new survey by China’s State Forestry Administration indicates that the wild giant panda population has grownto 1,864, representing an increase of 268 pandas since 2003. The number of giant pandas in captivity also doubled.
The census, which took some three years to complete, reflects the country’s commitment to protecting an animal with a lot of obstacles against it: Pandas are slow to reproduce and historically have been a target for poachers, and, per the census, now have 832 miles of roads running through their habitats. China’s 27 preserves for pandas account for the growth.
ReutersMother giant panda Juxiao is seen with one of her triplets at Chimelong Safari Park in Guangzhou, Guangdong province, Dec. 9, 2014.
Backgrounder: A decade of giant panda developments in China
English.news.cn 2015-02-28
CHENGDU, Feb. 28 (Xinhua) -- The government released the fourth decennial panda census on Saturday. Below are the major events and developments in panda conservation and breeding in China of the past decade.
-- March 2004, the establishment of four giant panda breeding bases in four Chinese cities was agreed upon at a national working conference on giant panda protection.
-- June 2004, the third full panda census counted over 1,590 pandas in the wild and 161 in captivity. It was the first time the government had released detailed on the giant panda population in 15 years.
-- April 2005, Chinese scientists published a paper in "Journal of Mammalogy", announcing a new subspecies of giant panda from the Qinling Mountain range in Shaanxi Province.
-- May 2005, Chen Yunlin, director of the Taiwan Work Office of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee at the time, announced the mainland was sending a pair of pandas (later named Tuan Tuan and Yuan Yuan, meaning reunion in Chinese) to Taiwan.
-- August 2005, China released a panda back in to the wild and continued to study it with the aid of a radio-location system, paving the way for the release of more giant pandas in the coming years.
-- November 2005, the giant panda was named as a mascot for the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games.
-- April 2006, Xiang Xiang became the first captive giant panda to receive wilderness training in Wolong Nature Reserve in southwest China's Sichuan Province.
-- February 2007, Xiang Xiang was found dead in the wild. Researchers believe Xiang Xiang fell when competing for territory and food against wild pandas.
-- April 2007, Ying Ying and Le Le, a pair of giant pandas, were given to Hong Kong as a gift to mark the 10th anniversary of the city's return to China.
-- May 12, 2008, an 8.0 magnitude earthquake wreaked habitat in Sichuan and damaged the China Conservation and Research Center for the Giant Panda (CCRCGP). Over a hundred captive pandas were transferred elsewhere.
-- Dec. 23, 2008, Tuan Tuan and Yuan Yuan arrive in Taiwan.
-- 2009, the CCRCGP, the world's largest giant panda breeding organization, began measures on population control, genetic variation and sustainable development.
-- Feb. 6, 2010, two American-born pandas, Tai Shan and Mei Lan, arrived in their ancestral home of Sichuan after a 15 hour flight. The birth of the two pandas was the result of joint efforts by Chinese and U.S. breeding experts.
-- July, 2010, the CCRCGP restarted its wilderness training with four expectant female pandas in Wolong National Nature Reserve.
-- By the end of 2010, the number of pandas bred in captivity was 312, due to breeding and rearing breakthroughs. According to a genetics formula, there needs to be more that 300 giant pandas to ensure over 95 percent genetic diversity and to avoid them dying out.
-- By the end of October, 2011, four pairs of mothers and cubs participated in wilderness training in Wolong, increasing the number of candidates for release.
-- Dec. 4, 2011, another two pandas named Tian Tian and Yang Guang arrived in Edinburgh Zoo on a 10-year exchange program. Seventeen years had passed since a giant panda first appeared in a British zoo, when London borrowed Ming Ming from China to mate with Bao Bao from Berlin. Ming Ming was sent back to China in 1994 after unsuccessful mating efforts.
-- October 2012, Tao Tao, the first panda to be born in a wilderness training base, was successfully released into Liziping Nature Reserve in Sichuan. Tao Tao, a male, was born on Aug. 3, 2010. He became China's second captive-bred giant panda that was released.
-- July 6, 2013, Yuan Yuan gave birth to Yuan Zai in Taipei, the first panda cub born in Taiwan.
-- Nov. 6, 2013, two year old Zhang Xiang became the world's first artificially-bred female giant panda and China's third captive giant panda to be released.
-- Feb. 22, 2014, Xing Hui and Hao Hao, a pair of giant pandas, were sent from China's Sichuan Province to their new home in Pairi Daizi Zoo in Belgium. They will remain there for 15 years.
-- July 29, 2014, Ju Xiao, a female giant panda from Wolong gave birth to a rare set of triplets in Guangzhou, capital of south China's Guangdong Province. The three cubs were the world's only recorded surviving giant panda triplets.
-- Oct. 14, 2014, Xue Xue, a 2-year-old female became the fourth captive-bred giant panda to be released into the wild in China.
Wild giant panda population surges, survival risks remain
English.news.cn 2015-02-28
BEIJING, Feb. 28 (Xinhua) -- An official survey on Saturday reported that the population of pandas in the wild had increased and favorable environment measures had boosted habitat. However, it was not all good news as the lives of some 223 giant pandas were at risk.
GROWING POPULATION
By the end of 2013 there were 1,864 giant pandas living in the wild, an increase of 268, or 16.8 percent, over a previous survey conducted in 2003, according to the State Forestry Administration (SFA).
Panda habitat expanded by 11.8 percent to 2.58 million hectares from 2003.
There were 375 giant pandas in captivity in China by the end of 2013, including 166 males and 209 females. This is an increase of 211, or 128.7 percent, from 2003, the SFA said.
The survey attributed the population boom to conservation efforts.
The implementation of a series of ecological initiatives, including the grain for green project as well as wildlife protection, have helped boost the number of giant pandas.
Wild giant pandas are found in six mountain ranges -- Qingling, Minshan, Qionglaishan, Daxiangling, Xiaoxiangling and Liangshan, covering 49 counties in Sichuan, Shaanxi and Gansu provinces.
Southwestern Sichuan is home to the biggest giant panda population, at 1,347, accounting for about three quarters of the total
Due to collaborative research on giant pandas, 42 adults and cubs were living overseas in 12 countries by June 2014 .
China has collaborated with 17 zoos in Japan, the United States, Austria, Thailand, Spain, Australia, Britain, France, Singapore, Canada, Belgium and Malaysia,
The survey, China's fourth, covered 4.36 million hectares and was conducted between 2011 and 2014. It took 2,000 people 60,000 days to complete it.
The first survey in 1976, indicated that 2,000 giant pandas were living in the wild. This number had dropped to 1,114 by the 1980s, according to the second survey.
HIGH RISK FOR SURVIVAL
The survey also sounded an alarming note for protection of the highly endangered mammal.
The survey found that the survival of 223 wild giant pandas was deemed at high risk.
Those deemed at risk live in 24 isolated groups and account for 12 percent of the wild population.
They are living "at high risk for survival and the situation is still alarming."
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".
Those 18 groups with less than 10 individuals were "at extreme high risk of extinction".
The futures of another two isolated populations in south Minshan and the middle Daxiangling mountains is also in doubt due to the 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, at a press conference.
Habitat fragmentation is the major factor threatening the survival of giant pandas. The survey identified the construction of 319 hydropower plants, 1,339 km of roads, 268.7 km of high-voltage transmission lines, 984 residential areas, 479 mines and 25 tourist attractions as major disturbances to the animal's habitat.
Due to geographical and managerial inconsistencies, breeding center exchanges are failing to increase genetic diversity and resiliency of the animals.
In some areas, a lack of funding and under developed employee technical capacity has held back giant panda protection achievements, the survey found.
To address the situation, the SFA will first expedite the release of the giant panda conservation plan and increase funding to support a new series of conservation programs
The SFA will also improve related legislation, enhance captive reproduction efforts, improve the patrol and monitoring system, and strengthen research and education to boost professional skills.
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for panda lovers.
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You must be a socially retarded person if you always think like that.
