Why panda bears are endangered

Image source, Getty Images. Giant pandas are no longer classified as "endangered" - but are still "vulnerable". Chinese efforts to recreate and repopulate bamboo forests have helped pull the pandas back from brink of extinction.

You might also be interested in:. This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Raccoons are able to adapt in this way because of their physical attributes, such as their digestive systems, which can digest nearly any kind of food, and their small size, which allows them to hide easily.

There are other animals, such as pigeons and rats, that have adapted in similar ways to live alongside humans. Pandas have no such adaptations. They cannot simply move into cities and towns when their forests are destroyed, mainly because they are so specifically adapted to a life of eating bamboo. Pandas' digestive systems can't properly digest anything else. Because bamboo shoots and leaves don't contain many nutrients, pandas also must consume vast quantities of it — around 20 to 40 pounds a day.

Even if pandas could eat something other than bamboo, pandas could never blend in safely in cities or towns, due to their large size. For pandas, the environment they originally adapted to is the only environment where they can thrive. Even in captivity, breeding pandas is notoriously difficult. Pandas are extremely selective about choosing their mates, which means that even if a male and female panda are kept in the same enclosure for years, there is no guarantee the pair will mate.

If pandas do mate in captivity, the cubs often need to be hand-raised by people, since captivity seems to throw off the maternal instincts of many panda mothers, causing them to abandon or even harm their cubs.

Because of these issues, conservation programs that release pandas into the wild, in order to increase their numbers, are simply not possible, as they are for animals such as:.

China has long extended gifts and loans of giant pandas to zoos across the globe as symbols of friendship. The U. Fish and Wildlife Service Service listed the giant panda as an endangered species under the U.

View our Cookie Policy. I accept. Please note: This page has been archived and its content may no longer be up-to-date. This version of the page will remain live for reference purposes as we work to update the content across our website. Help secure their future. Back in the s, there were as few as 1, pandas in China. But the most recent survey in estimated that there were 1, pandas living in the wild. The decision is a recognition of the hard work of the Chinese government, local communities, nature reserve staff and WWF over many years.

But the panda's long term future is not yet secure.