Not Geography Geography Lesson 4
Donate Pandas Here
The topic for this week may be straying slightly into ecology territory, but as Geography is such a wide subject, it often overlaps other similar natural sciences. And also this is my blog so I'll write what I want. And so, this week we will explore the recent success of panda conservation, and some evidence to suggest that all may not be as rosy as it appears for China's favourite fur-babies.
God Was Having an Off-Day When He Made the Pandas
For the last two decades, the lovable giant panda has been the poster child for wildlife conservation globally, the Beyonce of endangered species. Copious amounts of charity and government money has been dedicated to monitoring, breeding and releasing the bears, as well as the invention of 'panda diplomacy' by China (wherein they lend some pandas as a gesture of goodwill).
All things considered, the pandas seem to need all the help they can get, as they are the animal equivalent of Homer Simpson. They sleep for up to 16 hours a day, and spend the remainder of their time eating nutrient-poor bamboo; they often miss their very narrow window for mating because of this! And we all remember the hype and subsequent disappointment when it was thought Edinburgh Zoo's diplomacy panda Tian Tian was pregnant, but actually was just pretending to be, so she would receive more food....
Conservation Works
Due to the enormous economic and time investments made into the protection of pandas in China, it was declared in Autumn last year that they are no longer 'Endangered'. In their latest National Panda Survey, Chinese researchers found an increase of 16.8% in their numbers, and there are now more than 1246 pandas living in 67 reserves, as well as over 1800 wild pandas. And more pandas = more videos of baby pandas falling over = everybody is a winner.
But is it too Good to be True..?
Although it would seem like everything is going swimmingly for the pandas, some Chinese officials and conservationists have criticized the down-grading as premature and damaging to their efforts, as it may lead to a relaxation of protected policies and loss of funding. They stated that although more pandas have been found in the wild, the area in which the survey was conducted was much larger than that of the last survey, so they would always find more pandas over a bigger area. Also, their habitat is becoming increasingly broken up by railways and roads, which separate the population into smaller colonies and reduce their ability to survive.
The Future for Pandas
Sadly it might not be time to celebrate just yet. To continue their work successfully and maintain the conservation of the world's favourite bear, scientists are calling for increases in their funding to build reserves in areas where there are currently no pandas. Hopefully in the future, they will be able to restore panda populations to the entirety of the region, rather than in the current little clusters. And surely that can only be a good thing for everyone.
Despite the uncertainties into the actual numbers of increase in pandas, it is still sure that they are being brought back from the brink of extinction (even if it is partly their own lazy fault in the first place)! Of course, there are two gifs of baby pandas falling over, because pandas.
PS: I am completely open to accepting gestures of good will by the Chinese government, in the form of a panda.
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