Example Of Why Does Wild Giant Panda Mainly Live In Sichuan China? Essay

Statistically, most wild pandas live in bamboo forests in Western China, especially in the Minshan and Qinling mountains. Most of the giant wild pandas live in Sichuan, although a small population also lives in Gansu and Shaanxi areas. The ideal habitat for wild giant pandas is areas with bamboo forests in mountains at an elevation of between 1200 and 3100 meters above the general sea level. A single pair of adult wild giant pandas requires at least 7,400 acres of land with bamboo to sustain their lives (Lindberg & Baragona 248). Like most other wild animals, wild giant pandas have been consistently threatened by human economic activities such as extensive logging and farming that reduce the bamboo acreage in areas where they live (Stone & Su 42). By the reduction of food and the degradation of their habitat, they population of wild giant pandas, for this reason, reduces and is sometimes eliminated from certain areas where human activities remain uncontrolled. Wild giant panda mainly live in Sichuan China because the government intervened in 1998 by banning logging, by that saving the rare species from extinction (Fox & Fox, 32).
Currently, over 10000 square kilometers are about fifty national reserves that protect wild giant panda populations, although sometimes the pandas starve since the habitats are separate and thus a bad year for bamboo plants results in the death of some pandas (Lai & Olesen, 15). Sichuan has the majority (80%) of the wild giant panda population because the province has clean water reserves and plenty of food for the wild panda. The province is also mountainous and humid which are ideal conditions for the survival of wild giant pandas. Prior to extensive deforestation and farming in China, giant pandas could be found even in the lowlands of interior China and it was not until the government intervened to conserve the environment, halt human activities that were threatening pandas with extinction, that panda populations stopped reducing. Another human activity that threatens wild giant pandas is illegal hunting and poaching for their fur that fetches high prices for use in clothing (Angel 67). The Chinese government has invested heavily to prevent poaching of pandas, and this explains why Sichuan province remains the dominant habitat for wild giant pandas in the world.

Works Cited

Angel Heather “Pandas” Voyageur Press Voyageur Press 1998 Print.
Fox Mark; Olga Fox; Curriculum Corporation (Australia) “Discovering endangered animals” Carlton South Vic, Australia: Curriculum Press/Published by Education Services Australia Ltd., 2005 Print.
Lai Fanny; Bjorn Olesen “A visual celebration of giant pandas” Singapore: Editions Didier Millet, 2012 Print.
Lindburg Donald G; Karen Baragona “Pandas : biology and conservation” Berkley : University of California Press, 2004 Print
Stone Lynn M; Keren Su. “Giant pandas” Minneapolis : Carolrhoda Books, 2004 Print.