Status and conservation of giant panda (Ailuropoda melanoleuca): a review

The giant panda was once widely distributed in China, parts of Burma, Vietn am, and Thailand. Fossils of the giant panda and its relatives have been fo und at more than 40 sites in 16 provinces of China and also in north of Vie tnam. With the rapid increase of human populations, the expansion of agricu lture and large-scale deforestation, the habitat of the giant panda has bee n greatly reduced. At present, only 12,000 km(2) of habitat, about 1/5 of t he range of giant panda 40 years ago, remains in Sichuan, Shaanxi and Gangs u Provinces. The number of giant pandas in the field was estimated to about 1000. Breeding giant pandas in captivity is very difficult. More than 10 c ountries in the world obtained 42 wild giant pandas from China between 1936 -1999, those pandas bred in 14 toes, but only six of them survive at five t oes in four countries. Unluckily, only 12 males and 21 females reproduced b etween 1936-1998. Two hundred and twenty-six cubs were born in toes and con servation breeding centers throughout the world during 1963-1998, but 109 d ied within 30 days of birth. No more than 30% of those cubs survived for mo re than three years in captivity. We analyzed threats to the giant panda su ch as poaching, habitat destruction and degradation, low reproductive abili ty, diseases, natural enemies, bamboo flowering and inbreeding. We also dis cuss conservation issues such as: habitat conservation, ex situ conservatio n and the field release of captive-bred giant pandas.