The giant panda is such an iconic symbol of endangered species that the World Wildlife Fund uses it as their logo. Consequently, a great deal of effort and many resources have been expended to protect the charismatic member of the bear family, which has only fewer than 1,600 individuals living in the wild. An joint U.S.-Chinese team of scientists has found that even more could be done, as their research shows that more suitable panda habitat lies outside than inside the nature reserves dedicated to preserving the threatened animal.
"This research can help the Chinese government and international nongovernmental organizations develop comprehensive strategic plans for more effective conservation of the panda," said Jianguo "Jack" Liu, Michigan State University Distinguished Professor of fisheries and wildlife, in a press release.
In a paper published in Conservation Biology, scientists from Michigan State University, Columbia University, and the Chinese Academy of Sciences found that only 40% of the currently suitable habitat for giant pandas lies within nature reserves.
Andrés Viña, CSIS specialist in the Department of Fisheries and Wildlife at Michigan State and senior author of the paper, said, "Our model also identified potentially suitable habitat outside the currently accepted geographic range of the panda."
In fact, the team estimated that the current suitable habitat corresponds to only about 25% of the maximum area in which pandas could live. The team suggested that the additional area be evaluated as potential panda reintroduction sites. This is good news for the Chinese government, which is already planning on increasing panda habitat and range.
"The Chinese government plans to add approximately 69,500 square miles of land to the country's nature reserve system between 2010 and 2020," said Zhiyun Ouyang, director of the Lab of Urban and Regional Ecology at the Chinese Academy of Sciences in Beijing. "So opportunities exist to create new reserves, to expand existing reserves and to create corridors that increase the connectivity among the reserves. Based on our results, we suggest some new areas to be included in China's nature reserve system."
The research team developed habitat models using geographical/environmental information gathered by satellites overlaid with information on panda occurrence. After analyzing the six mountain regions in the three provinces where pandas are known to live, the scientists developed a habitat suitability index for the entire 48,328-square-mile area.
In their paper, the team suggested that their range-wide habitat analysis model could be used for many other endangered species besides the giant panda, giving governments and other agencies a new tool as they develop conservation strategies and priorities.
Besides Liu, Viña and Ouyang, the other members of the research team included Mao-Ning Tuanmu, MSU fisheries and wildlife doctoral student, Yu Li, MSU fisheries and wildlife master's student, Weihua Xu, professor at the Chinese Academy of Sciences, and Ruth DeFries, Denning Professor of Sustainable Development at Columbia University. Their research was supported by the Michigan Agricultural Experiment Station, the National Science Foundation, NASA, and the National Natural Science Foundation of China.
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