A panda census is under way in China that is expected to confirm a slight recovery in numbers of one of the world’s most endangered species.
The two-year survey in the mountains of Sichuan, Shaanxi and Gansu provinces is the most comprehensive and sophisticated study ever made of the wild population — currently estimated at 1,600 pandas — and their habitat.
The census comes as Edinburgh zoo prepares to take delivery of the first two giant pandas to arrive in the UK for almost 20 years. Tian Tian (甜甜, “Sweetie”) and Yang Guang (陽光, “Sunshine”) will fly out from Chengdu today on a jet emblazoned with a panda portrait.
Photo: Reuters
Visitors to their new European home will soon be able to observe the pair in captivity, while rangers in their homeland are trudging through forests, collecting DNA samples and logging droppings and paw prints.
Conservationists and government officials believe the survey will show modest success from the creation of about 50 panda reserves and a multibillion dollar campaign to raise awareness of the importance of biodiversity.
Thousands of scientists and volunteers will take part in the study.
The results will not be available until at least 2013, but one of the senior technical advisers, Wei Fuwen (魏輔文) of the Institute of Zoology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, was optimistic.
“The number of pandas has definitely increased due to the laws and regulations that have been passed to protect the species and the forests, but it is too early to say how much of a rise there has been,” he said.
Estimates of panda numbers in the wild vary enormously due to the difficulty of collecting data about the notoriously shy animal, which lives in dense, high-altitude vegetation: The last survey required more than 35,000 volunteers.
However, there have been encouraging signs that the population has stabilized after decades of decline. From a low of 1,100 giant pandas in the 1980s, the most recent survey by the state forestry administration in 2004 suggested the wild population had increased to 1,596.
Another academic study in 2007, which used genetic sampling, put the number as high as 3,000 The new census — which started in Yingjing County in Sichuan in late October uses both old-style tracking methods and modern DNA analysis.
“After this, I think we can get a better idea of how to help them survive,” said Fan Zhiyong (范志勇) of the WWF conservation group. “We think the study will show that the population is basically stable with a small increase over the past 10 years.”
The survey will focus on an area of 3,200km2, though the animals are thought to range over territories almost 1,000 times as large.
Even if a small gain is confirmed, the panda is not out of danger. Habitat loss is the biggest threat. Expanding cities and villages have pushed ever further into the mountains. Road and trains have carved up much of the remaining area. There are almost no rivers left undammed.
“The biggest challenge is from infrastructure because the economy has grown so fast. We really need to get the government agencies to pay more attention to that,” Fan said. “The endangered status of the giant panda has not changed.”
Chinese authorities, working with international conservation groups, have established a series of “breeding” channels to link reserves so that small populations of pandas do not become isolated. One purpose of the DNA testing is to assess the extent to which the animals have become genetically inbred.
Scientists have claimed success in breeding the animal in captivity. Edinburgh zoo’s new inmates are from a captive population that has risen rapidly to 312 animals worldwide thanks to artificial insemination and other husbandry techniques.
Critics say the breeding program is commercially and politically motivated to produce animals that are given in diplomatic exchanges or rented to zoos, reportedly for up to US$1 million a year.
However, intense efforts are now under way to prepare captive pandas to be released into the wild. More than 100 cameras have recently been set up in a semi-wild environment in Wulong where a dozen or so animals will be trained to fend for themselves before being exposed to a less-protected habitat.
An earlier attempt to put a panda, Xiang Xiang (祥祥), into the wild ended with its death after a fight with tougher rivals.
Many conservationists believe the huge resources dedicated to captive panda breeding would be better used to protect habitat and crack down on the illegal trade in rare animal products.
The contrast was to have been evident yesterday. According to the International Fund for Animal Welfare, auctioneers in Beijing were to sell off at least 400 bottles of wine made from tiger bone in disregard of a global trade ban. Meanwhile, in the skies above China, Tian Tian and Yang Guang will be flying to Europe on a specially chartered plane.
MONEY MATTERS: Xi was to highlight projects such as a new high-speed railway between Belgrade and Budapest, as Serbia is entirely open to Chinese trade and investment Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic yesterday said that “Taiwan is China” as he made a speech welcoming Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) to Belgrade, state broadcaster Radio Television of Serbia (RTS) said. “We have a clear and simple position regarding Chinese territorial integrity,” he told a crowd outside the government offices while Xi applauded him. “Yes, Taiwan is China.” Xi landed in Belgrade on Tuesday night on the second leg of his European tour, and was greeted by Vucic and most government ministers. Xi had just completed a two-day trip to France, where he held talks with French President Emmanuel Macron as the
With the midday sun blazing, an experimental orange and white F-16 fighter jet launched with a familiar roar that is a hallmark of US airpower, but the aerial combat that followed was unlike any other: This F-16 was controlled by artificial intelligence (AI), not a human pilot, and riding in the front seat was US Secretary of the Air Force Frank Kendall. AI marks one of the biggest advances in military aviation since the introduction of stealth in the early 1990s, and the US Air Force has aggressively leaned in. Even though the technology is not fully developed, the service is planning
INTERNATIONAL PROBE: Australian and US authorities were helping coordinate the investigation of the case, which follows the 2015 murder of Australian surfers in Mexico Three bodies were found in Mexico’s Baja California state, the FBI said on Friday, days after two Australians and an American went missing during a surfing trip in an area hit by cartel violence. Authorities used a pulley system to hoist what appeared to be lifeless bodies covered in mud from a shaft on a cliff high above the Pacific. “We confirm there were three individuals found deceased in Santo Tomas, Baja California,” a statement from the FBI’s office in San Diego, California, said without providing the identities of the victims. Australian brothers Jake and Callum Robinson and their American friend Jack Carter
CUSTOMS DUTIES: France’s cognac industry was closely watching the talks, fearing that an anti-dumping investigation opened by China is retaliation for trade tensions French President Emmanuel Macron yesterday hosted Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) at one of his beloved childhood haunts in the Pyrenees, seeking to press a message to Beijing not to support Russia’s war against Ukraine and to accept fairer trade. The first day of Xi’s state visit to France, his first to Europe since 2019, saw respectful, but sometimes robust exchanges between the two men during a succession of talks on Monday. Macron, joined initially by EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, urged Xi not to allow the export of any technology that could be used by Russia in its invasion