I don’t think I’ve ever heard of an endangered species becoming no longer endangered during my lifetime, but now I can say that I have thanks to the work of the International Union for Conservation of Nature with the giant panda.
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The IUCN announced this weekend that the status of the species is no longer ‘endangered’ and has been upgraded to ‘vulnerable’ with 1,864 adult giant pandas now in existence and 2060 if you include cubs in that figure too. Result.
A spokesman said the following:
Evidence from a series of range-wide national surveys indicate that the previous population decline has been arrested, and the population has started to increase.
The improved status confirms that the Chinese government’s efforts to conserve this species are effective.
They’ve replanted bamboo forests so that the animals have somewhere to live and food to eat and sunk a lot of money into conservation.
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Yeah, like I said, absolutely great news and proof that efforts like this can be successful if everyone gets behind them and enough money is invested. Fantastic.
For more giant pandas, check out this giant panda’s record breaking sex tape. Sure that had something to do with the repopulation of the species.
