The panda, or more accurately known as the Giant Panda is a true bear
native to central-western and south western China. It is easily recognizable by
its large, distinctive black patches around the eyes, over the ears, and across
its round body.
The western world first learned of the giant panda in 1869 when the French
missionary Armand David received a skin from a hunter on 11 March 1869. The
first living giant panda to be seen outside China was by the German zoologist
Hugo Weigold, who purchased a cub in 1916. In 1938, five giant pandas were sent
to London, but no more to follow for the next half of the century due to the
Second World War and its repercussions.
Panda Facts
The giant panda is an endangered species because it is threatened by
continued habitat loss and by a very low birthrate, both in the wild and in
captivity. Furthermore, the giant panda has been a target for poaching by locals
since ancient times and then by foreigners since it was introduced to the West.
Thankfully, starting in the 1930s, foreigners were unable to poach giant pandas
in China because of the Second Sino-Japanese War and the Chinese Civil War, but
pandas still remained a source of soft furs for the locals. The population boom
in China after 1949 created further stress on the pandas' habitat, and the
subsequent famines led to the increased hunting of wildlife, including the Giant
Pandas.
Worse was to come because during the Cultural Revolution, all studies and
conservation activities on the pandas were stopped. Then after the Chinese
economic reform, demand for panda skins from Hong Kong and Japan led to illegal
poaching for the black market - acts which were generally ignored by the local
officials at the time.
The Wolong National Nature Reserve was set up by the PRC government in 1958
to save the declining panda population, but few advances in the conservation of
pandas were made, due to inexperience and insufficient knowledge of Giant Panda
ecology. Many believed that the best way to save the pandas was to cage them. As
a result, pandas were caged at any sign of decline, and suffered further from
the terrible conditions. Because of pollution and destruction of their natural
habitat, along with segregation due to caging, reproduction of wild pandas was
severely limited. But things began to change in the 1990s, when several laws
(including gun control and the removal of resident humans from the reserves)
helped the chances of survival for pandas. With these renewed efforts and
improved conservation methods, wild pandas have started to increase in numbers
in some areas, even though they still are classified as a rare species.
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