What is threatening the giant pandas?

Living wildly in the mountain ranges of central China, there are many causes that impact these pandas that have suffered the species to a minimum. Habitat loss is a major contribution to the pandas’ blight, with bamboo production decreasing, timber logging increasing, and lower elevations conserved for agriculture, panda’s have to find other sources of food (WWF). Pandas once lived in lowland areas, but were forced out due to farming, forest clearing, and other developments have restricted their habitat to the mountains.


Another threat is fragmentation within their living habitat. This is when human development splits the ecosystem into pieces for agriculture or urban development. Their living area is conserved to 20 blocks and reproduction is more difficult since they are far apart. The blocks are like small neighborhood living areas where the pandas can thrive. These living areas are far apart because of the fragmentation is spread throughout leaving only 20 blocks scattered throughout. Reproduction is already difficult for giant pandas since they ovulate only once a year in the spring for a very short time. Since they live on their own, the process is very dependant on time, and how close a panda is to a potential mate, because pandas are relatively slow moving creatures. This makes reproduction even more rare and difficult, so there is even less of a chance that the population will grow back.