Camp Panda: "Then & Now"

“Pandas are in peril because of humans! We caused the problem, so we have a responsibility to help fix it,” exclaims Suzanne Braden, who, after visiting China and the Wolong Nature Reserve, was so moved by the plight of the panda that, when she returned to the United States, she cofounded the nonprofit Pandas International to help save the magnificent species.

Roughly a thousand years ago, an estimated twenty-three thousand pandas roamed wild and free through many thousands of miles of pristine, tranquil habitat in their native China—cool, moist forests of mixed broadleaf trees, with plenty of canopy coverage and an abundance of bamboo.

This was a direct result of the growth of agriculture and industrialization, and an unprecedented growth—more of an explosion, actually—in the human population.

This was a direct result of the growth of agriculture and industrialization, and an unprecedented growth—more of an explosion, actually—in the human population.

And infrastructure projects meant using more and more land to build roads, railways, bridges, and dams.

It must have been a terrifying time for the pandas: chop chop chop, whoo whoo!, beep beep—a cacophony of noise and chaos encroaching on their homes, destroying their food, their shelter...sending them scampering away to unfamiliar lands, higher and higher in the mountains.

For pandas here, as well as those in other reserves and in captivity, keepers are often able to distinguish one animal from another by the shape and size of their black eye patches; they all vary slightly.

Not only were pandas put at risk primarily due to habitat destruction and habitat encroachment by humans, but they were also shot and killed by humans: by trophy hunters (before hunting pandas was banned), by poachers (illegally killing pandas anyway, usually for their fur), and by local villagers protecting their livestock.

Not only were pandas put at risk primarily due to habitat destruction and habitat encroachment by humans, but they were also shot and killed by humans: by trophy hunters (before hunting pandas was banned), by poachers (illegally killing pandas anyway, usually for their fur), and by local villagers protecting their livestock.

It was estimated that by the 1980s, a mere one thousand pandas remained in the wild. By 1990, they were officially declared an endangered species.

The oohing and aahing people express toward the inky-eyed panda have made the bear not only an international sensation—but the de facto symbol of China itself.

And now, to further the panda conservation efforts, the China Conservation and Research Center for the Giant Panda (CCRCGP) is working on a comprehensive three-stage program to reintroduce pandas into the wild—a program that often involves scientists dressed as giant panda teddy bears.

It is the key to species adaptability and to healthy populations—providing the greatest chance for species survival when faced with external, environmental changes.

“There has been an exponential growth in reintroductions because the science and management actions have matured so much that they are frequently successful,” explains Dr. Axel Moehrenschlager, the chair of IUCN’s (International Union for Conservation of Nature) Reintroduction Specialist Group and the director of conservation and science at the Calgary Zoo in Alberta, Canada.

Baby panda cubs are not born with an innate set of survival skills.