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Adored around the world, the distinctive black and white animal is a national treasure in China and has been the symbol of WWF since its formation in 1961. While its numbers are slowly increasing, the giant panda remains one of the rarest and most endangered bears in the world. Learn more about this amazing species!
The giant panda is the rarest member of the bear family and among the world’s most threatened animals. Learn about WWF's giant panda conservation efforts.
By far, the greatest threat facing wild pandas, and the biggest reason they are critically endangered today, is deforestation on the part of humans, which has led to permanent habitat loss in some areas. Wild pandas once roamed bamboo forests in China, Vietnam, Laos and Burma.
In July 2021, Chinese conservation authorities announced that giant pandas are no longer endangered in the wild following years of conservation efforts, with a population in the wild exceeding 1,800.
We should do everything we can to save the giant panda because we are the ones that have driven it to the edge of extinction. And because we can. But pandas also play a crucial role in China's bamboo forests by spreading seeds and helping the vegetation to grow.
Now that we know where and how they live, we can revisit our first question: why are pandas endangered? As we mentioned above, the answer is human activity. Historically, the natural range of pandas was over ten times as large, spanning across much of central China.
The panda had long been considered an endangered species by the IUCN, but the environmental organization changed the status of the panda to “ vulnerable” in 2016, because of China’s success in restoring bamboo forest habitat.
Giant Pandas are found in Northeastern China and Southern Siberia. Giant Pandas have been classified as a “vulnerable” species from an IUCN Red List for many years now due to their low reproductive rate. They have a high risk of being endangered due to human activity.
Efforts to save the species are paying off. In 2016, the International Union for Conservation of Nature announced the giant panda was downlisted from “endangered” to “vulnerable” on the global list of species at risk of extinction.
On the positive side, officials decided to officially take the giant panda off of the endangered species list, citing steady successes in preserving the bears’ natural habitats.