Giant Pandas, scientifically known as Ailuiopodidae melanoleuca and as dà xióng māo in Chinese, is a mammal classified in the bear family that mainly live in central-western and southwestern China

Testimonial

Ms. Mary Edgecomb answers to some of the questions on our Post-tour survey:

1. What was the best thing about your trip?
I enjoyed Java and the Panda Breeding Center. I paid the extra to have my picture taken with the panda but now regret I didn't pay the extra to hold one. If you haven't touched one before they have thick coarse hair. I have several pictures that I will treasure.

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Distribution

Giant Panda in Sichuan, China At present, it is difficult to know how many wild Giant Pandas exist, because they live in the dense temperate forests of high mountains located on the eastern edge of the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, southwest China. Qinling, Minshan, Qionglai, Liangshan, Daxiangling and Xiaoxiangling are 6 main regions where Pandas can be found. Two surveys to indetify the number of wild Giant Pandas were taken between 1970s and 1980s. The final number was around 1,000, but it might be lower than the actual number. 37 counties are located in the regions where the Giant Pandas live. 7 of these - Foping County, Shanxi province. Pingwu County, Qingchuan County, Beichuan County, Baoxing County, Wenchuan County and Tianquan County, Sichuan province were found to have around 100 Giant pandas each. In 11 there were over 50 Pandas per county and in 19 counties there were fewer than 50 Pandas in each county.

Then net reproductive rate of Giant Pandas is 1.0674, which means the number of Giant Pandas is increasing quite slowly. Another survey taken by National Forestry Bureau recently showed the number of Giant Pandas has increased to 1596, but 161 of these are in a feeding program.

According to a report from National Forestry Bureau, Qinling Giant Pandas, a new subspecies of Giant Panda, separated from Sichuan Giant Pandas about 50,000 years ago. A Qinling Giant Panda’s head is more round than a Sichuan Giant Panda. The total number is 273 and some of them are brown.