Survival Status

The Vanishing Panda

At one time it looked as though the Giant panda might survive only on the WWF logo! Among the rarest animals in the world, today fewer than 1,600 Giant pandas are left in the wild. They are now strictly protected.

The Giant panda has probably always been a rare animal because it is confined to such a limited area of bamboo forests high in the mountains. However, even though they are protected they are still in danger. One of the main reasons for this is that bamboo - the panda's main food - flowers once every 100 years and then dies out. When entire bamboo forests die out, pandas can starve to death if they cannot move to another area.

Pandas are also poached for their skins, and sometimes get caught in traps set out for other animals. The Government of China, with help from WWF, now has a major programme to protect wild pandas and to try to breed them in captivity.