Giant Panda

This species is native to Central Western and South Western China. The panda's habbit is mainly at the top of the Yangtze Basin. They are found in Temperate Broadleaf and Mixed Forests that contain a high amount of bamboo. Once the giant Panda also lived in lowland areas, but farming, forest clearing and other developments restrict most pandas to mountains.

The Giant panda consumes a diet 99% bamboo. They may eat other foods such as honey, eggs, fish, yams, shrubs, leaves, oranges and bananas. All the bamboo that they eat has very little protein and gives very little energy. As they consume a diet with little nutrition they have to keep their digestive tracts full. The panda will eat 12-38kg of bamboo a day to meet the energy requirements.

The Giant Panda's are important to the ecosystem because they live at the top of the Yangtze Basin which is shared by the pandas and millions of people. The Basin is the geographic and economic heart of china and is one of the critical regions for biodiversity conservation in the world. Its diverse habbitats contain many rare and endangered plant and animal species. Economic benefits of the Yangtze Basin include tourism, fisheries, agriculture, hydropower and water resources. The survival of the Panda will mean it's habbitat will remain protected which will ensure that the people living in the region will continue to get ecosystem benefits.

The Giant Panda is also important to the ecosytem because they help to distribute bamboo seeds over areas. As the Giant Pandas number go down so does the bamboo which makes it harder for other pandas to find food.

Without the Giant Panda the ecosystem will be affected alot because the land the Pandas live on is protected for them, so if they were to become extinct the land would become open to humans which they would clear for farming and logging. Lots of other animals would die because their homes would be lost.

The ecosystem would also be affected because there would be no Giant Pandas to distribute bamboo seeds. Less bamboo which means less food for other species.

This species is threatend by habbitat loss because of population growth and unsustainable use of natural resources. Lots of natural forest have been cleared for agriculture, timber and fuelwood. China's large population has restricted pandas to long, narrow belts of bamboo of 1,000-1,200m wide. Across the pandas habbitat range, the habbitat is fragmented into more than 20 isolated patches. Because pandas can not migrate between these patches of habbitat it is harder for them to find new feeding areas.
Also because of these distant patches of habbitat pandas face a greater risk of imbreeding. This could lead to disease, less adaptability to enviromantal change and reproductive problems.
They are also threatend by poachers that want there fur which is sold for large sums of money. They are also killed or injured in traps and snares set for other animals.


To protect these animals nature reserves have been made and extended in China. They are also working on creating green corridors to connect isolated pandas. Other solutions that can be used are patrolling against poaching and illegal logging, more nature reserves and constant monitoring of panda numbers.