Wildlife

China Saves the Giant Panda

They're cute, they're cuddly and they've just been brought back from the brink of extinction. We're talking about the giant panda, a global icon that's just been taken off the endangered list, largely due to Chinese conservation efforts.

The bears, China's national icon, were once widespread throughout southern and eastern China but, due to expanding human populations and development, are now limited to areas that still contain bamboo forests. The success is due to Chinese efforts to recreate and repopulate bamboo forests.

Bamboo makes up some 99% of their diet, without which they are likely to starve. Pandas must eat 12kg (26 lbs) to 38kg worth of bamboo each day to maintain their energy needs.

There are now an estimated total of 2,060 pandas, of which 1,864 are adults - a number which has gotten them changed from "endangered" to "vulnerable", on the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN)'s Red List.