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Giant Pandas
Giant pandas have Mickey
Mouse ears, black-and-white coats and cuddly-looking bodies.
They appear sweet and comical. They are however, shy, gentle
creatures that generally avoid encounters with each other and
with humans.
The giant panda is one of
earth's most endangered species. Only about 1,000 pandas
survive in the wild, in the remote bamboo forests of China.
The panda's plight is confusing. They have few natural
predators (mainly the leopard). People from all over the
world love them and the Chinese government considers the panda a
national treasure.
In 1980 George Schaller, a
world-famous wildlife biologist, began researching the question of
why the species is nearing extinction. For four years he
tracked pandas through the forest. What he found was
disturbing! Hunters stalked pandas for their valuable
hides. Pandas were also losing their homes. Humans cut
down the trees, then plowed the soil in their quest for wood and
land. The pandas were forced to retreat farther up in the
mountains until there was nowhere else to go.
The future is brighter for
pandas because of the following steps to save them from
extinction. Killing pandas is illegal in China. People
face life in prison and some times even death for killing them or
trying to sell their fur. Many new panda reserves have been
created, and there are plans to re-designate almost all of the
animal's range as protected zones. Tree cutting will be
restricted or banned completely. New forests are being
planted to link panda regions. This will provide food and
cover for the animals as they travel between their
territories.
These efforts will give hope
to one of the planet's most adorable creatures - the pandas.
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