Giant Pandas Not Endangered and Western Gorillas Are!Keith
Giant Pandas off the Endangered List and Western Gorillas on it.
The population of giant pandas has increased, mainly thanks to conservation efforts over many years in China to save the species.
With population counts at approximately 2,000 adults and cubs it is no longer considered an endangered species, but is still thought to be vulnerable from future deforestation and concerns surrounding climate change.
The increase in numbers is being put down to special breeding programmes and protection for their native bamboo forests.
The change was announced as part of an update to the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red list, which includes 82,954 species, with both plants and animals on the list.
Almost 24,000 of these species are listed as being threatened with extinction. This is serious!
While it’s been great news for Pandas, the eastern gorilla is now critically endangered, joining three other great ape species on the list. Their population has collapsed over the last 20 years mainly due to illegal hunting that all too often takes place.
The western gorilla, the Bornean orangutan and Sumatran orangutan are all considered critically endangered. While gorillas in Africa have suffered due to illegal poaching, the orangutans in Indonesia and Malaysia are faced with rapid deforestation and which means a loss of their natural habitat.
And it’s not just animals on the list that are endangered. Plant species are threatened too. The endangered Ohe kiko’ola – a beautiful flowering tree found only on the island of Kauai, Hawaii, has been almost wiped out.
Nearly 90 per cent of native Hawaiian plants that have been assessed are threatened with extinction.