BEIJING, China (Reuters) -- Endangered giant pandas have boosted their numbers in the wild by almost half in just a few years thanks to enlarged habitat and improved ecosystems, Xinhua news agency said on Thursday.
Chinese forestry officials said last year that pandas, notoriously fussy eaters and picky partners, were rebounding from the brink of extinction but that they were not yet out of the woods.
"The number of giant pandas is up 40 percent over the number recorded before 2000," Zhou Shengxian, director of the State Forestry Administration, was quoted as telling a meeting in Beijing on Wednesday.
Some 1,596 giant pandas now lived in the wild, Zhou said, many in the high, fog-shrouded mountains of southwestern Sichuan province.
"Their number has increased from 1,114 before 2000," he said.
Years ago, giant pandas only occupied about 1.4 million hectares (3.45 million acres), fragmented into isolated patches.
"Now their habitat covers 2.3 million hectares of areas dotted across in 45 southwestern counties and parts of the northwest provinces. Living space had been enlarged by 65 percent," Zhou was quoted as saying.
He said other endangered species of wildlife had also multiplied -- including the Chinese alligator and crested ibis.
That's fantastic! It's amazing how much the population has grown in just a few years. Hopefully none of the populations have suffered much genetic bottlenecking. If all of them are in one population, it shouldn't be a problem... if they have isolated islands of them it could be a concern, as it currently is with cheetahs.
It is good news but my concern is their success is the result of a largely commercial campaign. The panda is one of nature's most popular and endearing animals and so we give it everything we have to help them. There are other species in more danger than the panda but don't receive any help because they aren't noticed by the non-biological community like the panda is. My herpetology professor told us that within 50 years, amphibians could be extinct in the wild if their current rate of decline continues.
Don't get me wrong here. I'm truly glad for the panda's success but I just wish we could be as successful with other species as well.
"Close your eyes,Let your spirit start to soar,And you'll live,As you never lived before" The Phantom of the Opera
"I'm not going out there without a bulletproof couch" -Sid Freedman; M*A*S*H*
Yes, but fortunately restoring habitat for the panda has helped out other species that use it. The "charistmatic magafauna" that get all the attention at least reside where there are other species are, which can benefit from programs to manage for the megafauna (especially since the larger animals require larger ranges).
I think tourism helped a great deal, look at all those safari parks in Afrika
A fact is a simple statement that everyone believes. It is innocent, unless found guilty. A hypothesis is a novel suggestion that no one wants to believe. It is guilty, until found effective. Edward Teller (1908 - 2003)
