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Why Are Pandas Still Endangered?

About a year ago there was some massive hype that giant pandas were taken off the endangered species list, but unfortunately, pandas are still very much endangered due to one main cause; their habitats are being lost due to human interference.

That’s right folks, these adorable animals are losing their habitats because of us. Unlike many other animals, pandas only eat bamboo and have no other supplemental food, such as berries or even fish. Because of this, pandas are only adapted to live in forests and areas that provide them with bamboo. To learn more about pandas, their struggles with being endangered, and more about endangered species, check out this guide.

“I am glad that the life of pandas is so dull by human standards, for our efforts at conservation have little moral value if we preserve creatures only as human ornaments; I shall be impressed when we show solicitude for warty toads and slithering worms.” — Stephen Jay Gould

Why Is The Giant Panda Still Endangered?

Scientific Classification
Kingdom Animalia
Phylum Chordata
Class Mammalia
Order Carnivora
Family Ursidae
Genus Ailuropoda

Panda bears, pandas, or giant pandas are all the same animal and fall under the scientific name Ailuropoda melanoleuca, which quite literally means “black and white cat-foot.” Giant pandas are native to Southern and Central China. Pandas are very easily recognizable by the black patches that surround their eyes, ears, and sporadically around their body. If you are wondering why they are referred to as the “giant” panda it is to differentiate them from the Red Panda, which is actually unrelated to the Giant Panda. As mentioned above, pandas’ primary diet is bamboo but in captivity, they are fed honey and occasionally other shrubs and fruits.

Here are some really cool facts about pandas:

Pandas On The Endangered Species List

“Safeguarding our common home is not only essential to protecting endangered species and preserving old-growth forests, it is also paramount to ending poverty, fighting injustice, and protecting the long-term survival of humankind and of our faith.” — Catherine Cortez-Masto

Before we delve into Giant Pandas and their endangered species status, it is important to quickly go over what being categorized as an endangered species means, as well as briefly go over some of the other categories as well. The International Union for Conservation of Nature (also called the IUCN) Red List is the one who categorizes species on a list based on the likelihood of their extinction. For a species to be labeled as “endangered,” it means they are very likely to become extinct and it is the second most severe conservation status. Here is the complete Red List:

If you are at all curious about a complete list of animals that is on the endangered species list you can check out the World Wildlife’s website (can be found here) where they have complete list of the endangered species on the Red List. You might also notice that the WWF’s logo is a Panda, another small tie to the great animal that has captured so many hearts all over the world.

“I thought the secret of life was obvious: be here now, love as if your whole life depended on it, find your life’s work, and try to get hold of a giant panda.” — Anne Lamott

Unfortunately for the Panda, these adorable animals are still very much in trouble because they keep losing their environment thanks to human interference. Like we said before, humans are taking more and more of the Panda’s habitat and are making it difficult for them to survive. The problems that Pandas have is perpetuated by the fact that Pandas really don’t eat anything else other than bamboo.

This means that they are confined to staying in one location instead of being able to flee elsewhere to adapt. Luckily, there have been many great strides in the past several years to conserve this animal’s habitat to try to protect the Panda as much as possible. Hopefully, at some point soon, Pandas will be removed from the endangered species list and they can start to regrow their numbers back in the wild without the concern of human interference.

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