With fewer than 2,500 adult giant pandas in the wild, the species is categorized as endangered on the IUCN’s (International Union for Conservation of Nature) Red List of Threatened Species. While today’s giant pandas are largely safe from the historic threat of poaching, their populations at least until recently have continued to decline due to habitat loss and fragmentation, primarily as a result of development.
Access to the giant panda’s primary source of food, bamboo, may become restricted as the basin of China’s Yangtze River is increasingly affected by climate change. The Yangtze River basin is projected to undergo warming trends, higher levels of CO2 and more extreme weather events (Yangtze Conservation and Development Report 2009). These changes are expected to result in an increase in forest pests and diseases and may impact the production of some forest species (Yangtze Conservation and Development Report 2009). If these changes subsequently result in decreased bamboo production there will be less food available for the giant panda.
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Sources
Sources:
- Loucks, C.J., Z. Lü, E. Dinserstein, W. Dajun, F. Dali and W. Hao. 2003. The giant pandas of the Qinling Mountains, China: a case study in designing conservation landscapes for elevational migrants. Conservation Biology 17(2):558-565.
- Loucks, C.J., Z. Lü, E. Dinserstein, H. Wang, D.M. Olson, C. Zhu and D. Wang. 2001. Giant pandas in a changing landscape. Science 294(13):1465.
- Lü, Z, D. Wang and D.L. Garshelis. 2008. Ailuropoda melanoleuca. In: IUCN 2008. 2008 IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. Accessed on 11 May 2009.
- McClean, C. and J. Lovett. 2008. Bamboos and climate change in China: preliminary report. University of York, England. 27 pp. Accessed on 12 May 2009.
- Xu, W., X. Wang, Z. Ouyang, J. Zhang, Z. Li, Y. Xiao and H. Zheng. In press. Conservation of giant panda habitat in South Minshan, China, after the May 2008 earthquake. Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment, July 27, 2009 e-View.
- Yangtze Conservation and Development Report, 2009. China Academy of Sciences, et al. Executive Summary in English. Accessed on 8 May 2009.
- •Youde, C., Z. Jinna and Y. Ming. 2007. The green heart of China: integrated landscape conservation and sustainable development in giant panda ranges in the upper reaches of the Yangtze River. WWF China. 18 pp.
- Zhang, B., M. Li, Z. Zhang, B. Goossens, L. Zhu, S. Zhang, J. Hu, M. Bruford and F. Wei. 2007. Genetic viability and population history of the giant panda, putting an end to the “evolutionary dead end?” Molecular Biology and Evolution. 24(8):1801-1810.
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