Panda facts at a glance

History of the panda - Timeline

Panda facts at a glance

Panda facts

• ·Giant pandas are found only in China. They were once widespread in southern and eastern China and in neighbouring Myanmar and North Vietnam. Today there are confined to temperate forest scattered across six mountain ranges in southwestern China: Minshan, Qinling, Qionglai, Liangshan, Daxiangling, and Xiaoxiangling. These forests are one of the most biologically rich temperate areas on Earth.
• · Giant pandas are biologically unique. They are closely related to bears and have the digestive system of a carnivore, but they have adapted to a vegetarian diet and depend almost exclusively on bamboo as a food source. Not designed to process plant matter, the panda's digestive system cannot easily break down the cellulose in bamboo, so pandas must eat huge amounts - as much as 83 pounds or about 40 kg, and for up to 14 hours, each day.
• · Pandas are erroneously believed to be poor breeders, an impression rooted in the disappointing reproductive performance of captive pandas. Wild panda populations involved in long-term studies are known to have reproductive rates comparable to those of some populations of American black bears, which are thriving.
• · Unlike other bears, pandas do not hibernate.
• · At birth, panda cubs weigh only about as much as a quarter-pound stick of butter (90-130 grams) and have little fur. Adults can weigh more than 220 pounds. A panda's average life span is 20-25 years in the wild and up to 30 in captivity.

Threats

• 
  Habitat loss and fragmentation are the most pressing threats to the giant panda. Large areas of natural forest have been cleared for agriculture, timber and fuel wood.
• · Because of China's dense human population, many panda populations are isolated in narrow belts of bamboo no more than 1,000-1,200 meters in width. Panda habitat is continuing to disappear as settlers push higher up the mountain slopes.
• · Across the panda's range, habitat is fragmented into more than 20isolated patches. Within these patches, a network of nature reserves provides protection for more than half of the panda population. Because pandas cannot migrate between these far-flung habitat blocks, they have less flexibility to find new feeding areas during periodic bamboo die-off episodes.
• · Small, isolated populations also face a greater risk of inbreeding, which can lead to reduced resistance to disease, less adaptability to environmental changes and reproductive problems.
• · Some poaching of pandas still occurs, and even low levels of poaching can have grave consequences for such an endangered species. In recent years, several panda pelts being sold for large sums have been confiscated, but there is little information about the dynamics and dimensions of this market. Pandas are also unintentionally injured or killed in traps and snares set for other animals, such as musk deer and black bears.

WWF's Work with Pandas

• · In 1979, WWF was invited by the Chinese government to collaborate in panda conservation, becoming the first international conservation organization to work in China. In 1980, Dr. George Schaller began the first-ever intensive research program on wild panda ecology and behavior, carried out for WWF in collaboration with Chinese scientists.
• · In 1997, WWF initiated a community-based conservation program in Pingwu County, Sichuan Province, home to the largest concentration of pandas in China. The program teaches local people how to protect panda habitat without compromising their economic livelihood, by training them in sustainable logging methods, introducing new income-generating activities like ecotourism and raising local awareness about conservation.
• · In the past six years, WWF has trained more than 300 panda reserve staff and local government officials in nature reserve management, wildlife monitoring, anti-poaching patrolling and innovative community-based conservation approaches.
• One of the major milestones of the first decade of cooperation between WWF and China's State Forestry Administration was the creation of the "National Conservation Management Plan for the Giant Panda and Its Habitat" in 1992. The plan called for additional nature reserves, improvements in existing reserves and migratory corridors to reconnect isolated populations. By the end of 2003, the Chinese government had established 40 panda reserves, protecting 1,040,000 ha and about 45% of the total giant panda habitat.

History of the panda - Timeline

11 March 1869 - A hunter brings a panda skin to the French Jesuit, Armand David

13 April 1929 - The Roosevelt brothers become the first foreigners to shoot a panda

1936 - Ruth Harkness captures an infant panda and takes it to the USA, evoking universal sympathy for the plight of the panda and creating the 'panda cult'

1936-46 - 14 pandas are taken from China by foreigners

1946 - China closes its doors to panda exploitation by foreigners

1957 - China starts to use pandas as goodwill ambassadors

1957-83 - A total of 24 pandas are given to foreign countries as goodwill gestures

early 1960s - The first four panda reserves are established and a nature decree issued prohibiting the hunting of a list of animals, including the panda

1970s - Additional panda reserves are established

1970s - DNA analysis reveals that the panda is a member of the bear family

mid-1970s - A number of pandas in the northern part of the panda's range are thought to be starving after a mass flowering and subsequent die-off of bamboo, as happens periodically

mid-1970s - A census estimates that about 1-1,100 pandas exist in the wild, alerting the government to the precarious position of the panda

1978 - The Chinese government initiates a panda study, building a field camp on a steep forested slope in the Wolong Reserve

1979 - WWF International's chairman signs a unique agreement in Beijing for conservation cooperation with the People's Republic of China. The highlight of the agreement is a six-member WWF-China committee, established to coordinate links between conservation organisations and authorities in China and WWF's worldwide conservation network. A number of high-priority projects in China are decided upon, the first of which is the conservation of the panda

1980 - Dr George Schaller is invited by WWF and the Chinese government to study the panda, making him the first Western scientist to be entrusted with leading WWF work in China and WWF, the first international conservation organisation to begin fieldwork in China

1980s - Further panda nature reserves are established. However, the reserves are considered to be mere shells, unable to provide adequate protection to the panda

15 May 1980 - The first WWF observation of a panda's presence in the wild occurs

December 1980 - Dr Schaller makes breakthroughs in the study and conservation of panda ecology and behaviour, forming the basis of giant panda knowledge for years to come

1980s - Massive unnecessary panda rescue campaigns take place following bamboo flowering

1983 - A wildlife protection law is published, increasing the protection status of the panda

1983-87 - More than 30 panda cubs are taken from the wild into captivity in the belief that the cubs had been abandoned. In fact, the cubs had not been abandoned as mothers often leave their cubs for up to 50 hours to go foraging

1984 - The Chinese government decides that the panda is a lucrative commodity and begins to loan pandas to zoos with fees of up to US$1 million per year

1984 - The panda is transferred from Appendix III to Appendix I of CITES, meaning that the trade in pandas or its products is subject to strict regulation by the ratifying parties and trade for primarily commercial purposes is banned

1984-5 - GIS surveys and analysis reveal that the area of habitat occupied by pandas has reduced from over 29,500km2 to just 13,000km2 since 1975

1988 - Chinese officials recover the pelts of 146 pandas in Sichuan Province and investigate 115 cases of illegal dealing in panda furs

1989 - WWF-funded research and satellite imagery show that suitable habitat for pandas in the Sichuan Province has shrunk to 50 percent of its size in 1974

1990s - Zoos outside China continue to pay significant fees for panda loans because of the pandas' popularity with zoogoers

1990s - International conservation communities criticise the loaning of pandas for commercial purposes, emphasising the negative impact this procedure could have on wild populations exploited for the zoo trade

1991 - Experts meet to consider the possibilities of panda reintroductions into the wild

1992 - A WWF patrol in the Wolong Nature Reserve discover more than 70 snares in the hillside at the core of the reserve

1992 - A management plan for the panda is launched following a decade of cooperation between WWF and the Chinese Ministry of Forestry. The plan is entitled the National Conservation Programme for the Giant Panda and its Habitat and calls for the establishment of an additional 14 nature reserves, tangible improvements in the 13 existing reserves and the creation of 15 migratory corridors to enable increased interaction between isolated panda populations. Upon completion of the plan, 60 percent of all panda habitat will be included within protected areas

1993 - The State Council approves the National Panda Programme, committing US$5 million to support panda conservation

1989-95 - WWF supports a range of panda conservation work, including training courses; the provision of equipment for rangers, wardens, and scientists; veterinary work in Wolong Captive Breeding Centre; and biomonthly monitoring in the Wuyipeng Area of Wolong

1995 - A Chinese farmer is sentenced to life imprisonment for shooting a panda

1996 - Death sentences are imposed on two men caught at the Chinese border with panda and golden monkey pelts

1996 - WWF is invited by the Ministry of Forestry to support the Wanglang Reserve in the Pingwu County. Subsequent research shows that commercial logging, supplying 60 percent of the country's revenue, is destroying panda habitat at an alarming rate

1997 - WWF, together with the Chinese government, launches an Integrated Conservation and Development Project in Pingwu to address the conflicting needs of the pandas and the people

1997 - The penalty for poachers in China is changed from the death sentence to a 20-year prison sentence

1997 - Experts reconvene in Wolong Nature Reserve to discuss the feasibility of reintroducing pandas into the wild, concluding that "the release of the giant panda is not recommended at this time. … The most important activities to promote panda conservation are habitat conservation and research into wild panda populations and habitats"

1997 - An effort to clone the panda is initiated by scientists from the Chinese Academy of Sciences

1997 - Wanglang Nature Reserve becomes the first panda reserve supported by WWF to apply systematic panda monitoring, leading to detailed documentation of where pandas occur. Systematic patrolling uncovers several poaching incidents and helps to curb illegal trade

1998 - The Chinese government bans logging of natural forests in the southwest of the country, which indicated that the commercial logging in all the panda habitat were banned

1998 - A Chinese farmer is sentenced to 20 years imprisonment for killing three pandas

1998 - After WWF brings a lawsuit over the panda loan process, the US Fish and Wildlife Service creates a policy requiring U.S. zoos importing giant pandas to ensure that more than half of the funds associated with a panda loan must be channelled into the conservation of wild pandas and their habitat

1996-2000 - WWF trains more than 300 panda reserve staff and local government officials in Pingwu in nature reserve management, monitoring, conducting anti-poaching patrols and pioneering community-based conservation approaches

1992-1998 - 17 new reserves are gazetted by the Chinese government

1998 - Sichuan Forestry Department, with the support from WWF, initiated the biodiversity monitoring in 11 panda reserves in the Minshan mountain range.

Jan-Apr 1999 - Six panda pelts are confiscated by Chinese police

1999 - The third national panda survey begins across the entire panda range, including six mountain ranges. WWF provided technical and financial support to the survey.

1999 - A pilot panda survey in Qingchuan County, Sichuan, shows that the current distribution of pandas has shrunk from 367km2 in 1987 to 253km2

1999 - Studies show that a total of 467 pandas have been kept in captivity since 1936

November 1999 - Records from the Panda Studbook reveal that only 66 adult pandas (28 percent) in captivity are breeding and only 12 have been born in captivity. Of all captive-born males, only two are reported to have ever mated and only 12 percent of captive-born pandas survive to one year

2001 - The biodiversity monitoring work in the giant panda reserves were initiated by WWF in the Qinling Mountain range, the northernmost panda distribution area

Early 2002 - An agreement is signed between WWF and the Shaanxi Forestry Department to establish 13 new reserves and create the first habitat corridors in the Qinling mountains. The project aims to reconnect the fragmented giant panda populations in this mountain range. reconnect

2002 - With the support of WWF, the Conservation Newsletter of Giant Panda Reserves in Sichuan Province was created and has became an effective platform for information exchange among giant panda reserves in the province.

2002 - The Chinese government announces a new Wildlife and Protected Areas Programme that will invest ￡10 million over the next 10 years in 15 flagship species, including the giant panda. Eighteen new panda reserves will be created under this programme.

April 2003 - Facilitated by WWF's Qinling Project, the Shaanxi Provincial Government officially sanctioned five new panda reserves and five ecological corridors for the giant panda, increasing protected area for the giant pandas in Qinling by over 150,000 ha. WWF International recognized this exciting initative as a major "Gift to the Earth".

2003 - All the 17 giant panda reserves have carried out regular biodiversity monitoring work in the Minshan mountain range.

June 2004 - The result of the Third National Survey on the Giant Panda and Its Habitat was released by the State Council of China.