BBC News : The giant panda is no longer an endangered species, following decades of work by conservationists to save it.
The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List has announced a change in the official status of the beloved animal from “endangered” to “vulnerable” due to a population rebound in China.
But the update
also brought bad news. The eastern gorilla, the world’s largest primate, is now endangered.
Efforts by China, which claims the giant panda as its national animal, have brought its numbers back from the brink. The latest estimates show a population of 1,864 adults.
There are no exact figures for the numbers of cubs, but estimates bring the total number of giant pandas to 2,060.
“The improved status confirms that the Chinese government’s efforts to conserve this species are effective,” it added.
But the rebound could be
short-lived, the IUCN warned. According to predictions, climate change will eliminate over one-third of the panda’s bamboo habitat in the next 80 years. The report states that as a result, the panda population is expected to decline, undoing the progress made in the past two decades. The report emphasizes the importance of continuing effective forest protection measures and addressing emerging threats to safeguard this iconic species.
John Robinson, a primatologist and chief conservation officer at the Wildlife Conservation Society, told the AFP news agency: “When push comes to shove, the Chinese have done a really good job with pandas.
A surge of illegal hunting has taken the eastern gorilla in the other direction, reducing its numbers to just 5,000 across the globe.
“Today is a sad day because the IUCN Red List shows we are wiping out some of our closest relatives,” Inger Andersen, IUCN director general, told reporters.
The number of eastern gorillas has declined more than 70% in the past two decades.
The IUCN Red List includes 82,954 species, both plants and animals.
