Black and White Future

Welcome to the International Year of Biodiversity! I sincerely hope most of you have heard this before by now, as we’re almost five months through it.

Photo by Michael Nichols

Perfect opportunity to put some attention on

one of the most charismatic emblems of biodiversity, the giant panda, the poster child for all endangered species.

However, as most of us seem to acknowledge the image of the black and white bear as a conservation flagship, knowing it as the emblem for WWF since 1961, science has been very slow to take up its cause in earnest.

After a promising start in 1985, it seems the scientific world forgot about the giant panda, although the rest of the world didn’t. Panda science became a solely Chinese undertaking and a much overdue Panda conference in Beijing in 2000 showed they worked their magic flying below the Western radar.

A study published this week in Biology Letters by a joint team from China and the US gives an overview of how far science has come since then and we can expect to happen to this bamboo lover.

Scientific Progression
The main predictor of whether the giant panda will use a certain area as habitat turns out to be age of the forest that is on it. Old forests are perfect for pandas, not only have they been undisturbed, they also contain the large trees pandas use to construct their big, panda-sized dens. Without these, the females are forced to raise their cubs alive in less desirable rock caves.

Unfortunately, the ban on logging throughout the pandas range is just about to expire. It is up to the officials of the Chinese State Forestry Administration to decide what to do with this new insight in the importance of old-growth forests.

There is no debate about whether panda habitat has been disappearing fast in the last decade. But there is also some good news. China’s visionary ‘Grain-to-Green’ policy is working to convert cultivated land on steep slopes back into forests and grassland native to the areas. And it seems the first results are emerging. Also, at least in one of over 50 newly made panda reserves, Guanyinshan, panda habitat has been reported to re-establish itself. This is promising, but it needs to be told that in another key reserve the vegetation seems to be doing the opposite. Time will tell.

Whether this newly emerging panda habitat will offset the changes likely to occur due to climate change is very unclear. Theoretical models show that climate alterations alone may cause the loss of 35-40% of all panda habitat in the next 80 years.

Map by Adelaide Zoo.

An overview of historic and current distribution of the Giant Panda in China shows how much habitat has already been lost. Main factor is the clearing of forest for agriculture, timber and firewood. The pandas are also forced out of the valleys because of human population growth which makes their remaining habitat extremely fragmented. They have more and more trouble migrating. Pandas are illegally poached for their pelts or even caught in traps that were set for other wildlife.

New Developments

So how many are we protecting? That is the notoriously unanswerable question science is still grappling with. There are certainly no more than 3000 animals alive in the wild, most likely a lot less. There are around 240 giant panda living in captivity within China and another 27 outside the country. All in all.. it’s not much. Zoo’s are working together however, to set up a solid breeding program for this very difficult-to-breed species and become the conservation organizations they state to be.

Recently, the Chinese government has lifted the decade-long ban on radio-collaring giant pandas.

This research method is very widely used on all sorts of large vertebrate species, especially on large felines and canines. It puts a specially made collar on the animal that doesn't disturb their normal activities and is fitted with a GPS transmitter. It gives essential insight in the territory size, movement patterns and key habitat areas animals use.

Only four pandas have been fitted with these collars to date but already interesting information begins to trickle in. A female in breeding season was observed to disperse 50km outside her home range for example. This might have large implications on how mating strategies and gene flow work in the panda world. If you look for a mate a lot further than you usually go, you have a big chance to find a panda that is not related to you in any way and make genetically very strong offspring. In a population as small as this, that is essential!

Further research with radio collars will proof to be necessary for further management and policy making.

Although science has waited long to become involved with the Giant Panda, it seems it is determined to make up for lost time. Combined with the already massive public appeal, financial and institutional support from China an abroad, the future of the Panda seems to get a good chance.