Giant pandas taken off global ‘endangered’ list as population rebounds
Species now classified as ‘vulnerable’ by international conservation union, but experts warn the animals face growing threat from destruction of their habitat
Decades of conservation work in China have paid off for the Giant panda, whose status has been upgraded from “endangered” to “vulnerable” due to a population rebound, officials said.
The improvement for the giant panda was announced on Sunday as part of an update to the International Union for Conservation of Nature Red List, the world’s most comprehensive inventory of plants and animals.
The latest estimates show a population of 1,864 adult giant pandas.
When push comes to shove, the Chinese have done a really good job with pandas
Exact numbers are not available, but adding cubs to the projection would mean about 2,060 pandas exist today, said the union.
“Evidence from a series of range-wide national surveys indicate that the previous population decline has been arrested and the population has started to increase,” said the report.
Through its “rent-a-panda” captive breeding programme, China has also loaned some bears to zoos abroad in exchange for cash and reinvested that money in conservation efforts.
“When push comes to shove, the Chinese have done a really good job with pandas,” John Robinson, a primatologist and chief conservation officer at the Wildlife Conservation Society, said.