Blog Post #8 Pandas

Source: the guardian.com

The species I choose are the giant pandas. Due to cause by humans these animals are quite vulnerable and are at a risk for extinction. There are only 1,864 left of these pandas in the wild. The species of giant pandas mostly reside in western China up in the mountains where it is heavily forested with bamboo. These pandas like to live in areas that are rich with bamboo forest so that they can have access to an abundance of bamboo. This is because these animals eat a substantial amount of bamboo per day ranging from anywhere between 26 to 84 pounds. It is important for us to keep this species of pandas alive because of the great roles they have and provide to our forests. Giant pandas end up distributing seeds and making it possible for the growth of more species of plants for any other wildlife that might come across them. The major threats to this species is the loss of their habitats. The main area that these pandas tend to live in is the Yangtze Basin where the main site of economy in the country is occurring in. With this, the country needs to build more roads and transportation routes, which results in much of the forest being cut down, causing pandas to lose their home and each other. Without much of the forests, the survival rate of the pandas is reduced as result of their main food source and the supply of it greatly diminishing. Many people believe that it is due to hunting that these animals are becoming extinct, but with new laws and protection against them, it has been stopped. Climate change is another factor that is at fault for causing the extinction of giant pandas. This is because with the change of climate, it is expected to cause many of the bamboo plants t die, leaving the pandas to starve. What makes this species vulnerable is the growth of society. Their habitats are being ripped and taken away from them for human use as the population in the world increases. Some actions that are in place to protect these organisms are to create more habitats for pandas that are in protected areas of land as well as informing and showing ways of conservation to those in China, so that they can help keep the species alive. I picked this organism because I have loved pandas ever since I was younger and the though of them going extinct really saddens me because we are truly the ones who are causing all the negative affects on these species. It was surprising to me to read about the amount of bamboo they eat everyday because it is a huge amount.


https://www.worldwildlife.org/species/giant-panda
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2012/nov/12/giant-pandas-threatened-climate-change