Giant Panda Need Help 

There are several reasons that contribute to the decline in numbers of the giant panda.

1. Habitat encroachment and destruction is the main threat facing the pandas today.
2. Pandas become ensnared in traps farmers set for other animals
3. Poaching, illegal hunting. A panda skin can get sell for $100,000-$200,000 on the black markets in the far east. The punishment for poaching a giant panda in China: Life in Prison
4. Low reproductive capacity of the giant panda make it difficult for them rebound quickly from low numbers.
5. Mass die out of bamboo with no alternative food source

The populations are becoming smaller and more isolated which have several affects on the panda. First, bamboo usually reproduces by vegetative growth (asexual means) but when the bamboo flowers (sexual means) in synchrony there is a mass die off of the bamboo. Usually, when this occurred the panda would simply move to another area and switch to another bamboo that was not flowering. With the reserves being isolated the giant panda is not free to move and gain access to an alternate bamboo patch. Secondly, the genetic diversity of the populations is declining. The small populations offer little diversity in genetic material leaving and going into a population leaving them vulnerable to genetic problems.

People are trying to save the pandas, they:
1. Creation of 14 new panda reserves for a total of 26 panda reserves.
2. Corridors, forest links, between the isolated populations are being constructed to help increase the range in which the panda lives. It is hoped that exchange of genetic material between wild populations will increase.
3. Conservation education and public awareness activities
4. International breeding programs in zoos around the world.
5. Artificial insemination of pandas to try and increase the numbers, this has had little success.