Using footprints to identify and monitor giant pandas in the wild

Software pinpoints identity and sex with 90 percent accuracy

Date:  December 21, 2017

Source:  Duke University

Summary:

Footprints left by giant pandas in the wild can be used to identify the individual panda that made them and determine its sex, scientists show. The new identification technique uses an interactive software tool called FIT.

     

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Giant pandas rebound off endangered list

4 September 2016

 

The giant panda is no longer an endangered species, following decades of work by conservationists to save it.

The official status of the much-loved animal has been changed from "endangered" to "vulnerable" because of a population rebound in China.

The change was announced as part of an update to the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List.

But the update also brought bad news. The eastern gorilla, the world's largest primate, is now endangered.

Efforts by China, which claims the giant panda as its national animal, have brought its numbers back from the brink. The latest estimates show a population of 1,864 adults.

There are no exact figures for the numbers of cubs, but estimates bring the total number of giant pandas to 2,060.

"Evidence from a series of range-wide national surveys indicate that the previous population decline has been arrested, and the population has started to increase," said the IUCN's updated report.

"The improved status confirms that the Chinese government's efforts to conserve this species are effective," it added.

But the rebound could be short-lived, the IUCN warned. Climate change is predicted to wipe out more than one-third of the panda's bamboo habitat in the next 80 years.

"And thus panda population is projected to decline, reversing the gains made during the last two decades," the report said.

It added: "To protect this iconic species, it is critical that the effective forest protection measures are continued and that emerging threats are addressed."

John Robinson, a primatologist and chief conservation officer at the Wildlife Conservation Society, told the AFP news agency: "When push comes to shove, the Chinese have done a really good job with pandas.

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Giant Pandas' Lazy Lifestyle Justified by Science

by Laura Geggel, Staff Writer | July 09, 2015 03:00pm ET

Giant pandas have an insatiable hankering for bamboo, but scientists have long wondered how the bears survive on such a fibrous and low-nutrient plant. Now, a new study finds that giant pandas have clever ways to conserve energy, including having lazy lifestyles, small organs and special genes.

The researchers followed five captive and three wild giant pandas (Ailuropoda melanoleuca) for about a year. By using GPS trackers and analyzing chemicals excreted in the pandas' poop, they were able to measure the amount of energy the pandas spent each day. Surprisingly, the pandas expended only about 38 percent of the energy that an animal with the same body mass would require.

"We thought the metabolism of the panda would be low because the bamboo diet contains low energy," said senior author Fuwen Wei, a professor of zoology at the Chinese Academy of Sciences in Beijing. "But it is very surprising that it is this exceptionally low, equal to the three-toed sloth, and much lower than the koala." 

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A peek at the secret life of pandas

Date:

March 27, 2015

Source:

Michigan State University

Summary:

The world is fascinated by the reclusive giant pandas, yet precious little is known about how they spend their time in the Chinese bamboo forests. Until now. A team of researchers who have been electronically stalking five pandas in the wild, courtesy of rare GPS collars, have finished crunching months of data and has published some panda surprises.

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Half of Giant Panda Habitat May Vanish in 70 Years, Scientists Say

Clara Moskowitz, LiveScience Senior Writer


For all their cuteness, giant pandas are in a tight spot. There are fewer than 1,600 pandas left in the wild, and a new study found that more than half of the bears' already diminished natural habitat will be unlivable in 70 years thanks to climate change.

To protect the adorable black-and-white creatures, zoologists are working furiously to understand and improve panda-breeding in captivity. Toward that end, another recent study investigated male pandas' reproductive cycle, and found that, contrary to females, males are ready and able to mate during more than six months of the year.

This is welcome news, given that female pandas have a sharply limited fertility window of only 24 to 72 hours a year.

"The more we know, the more we can understand them and the better we're able to put guidelines in place for their protection," said Copper Aitken-Palmer, head veterinarian at the Smithsonian Conservation Biology Institute in Front Royal, Va., and leader of the reproduction study. "We can potentially manage them better in captivity, and we're actually looking toward reintroduction programs to put captive pandas back into the wild." 

read on: http://www.livescience.com/19493-giant-panda-breeding-climate-change.html

Reproductive Seasonality Observed in Male Giant Pandas

ScienceDaily (Apr. 4, 2012) — A three-year study of giant pandas published 4 April 2012 in Biology of Reproduction's Papers-in-Press reveals that reproductive seasonality exists not only in female pandas, but in male pandas as well.

According to the authors of the study, this new understanding of the regulators of male reproductive function will allow continued improvement of the captive panda management program and will, one day, assist in reintroducing pandas into the wild.

The giant panda is a specialized bear whose wild habitat now consists of only a few mountain ranges in central China. Attempts at preserving this endangered species have met with varying success, but over the last decade, substantial progress in giant panda breeding within China has resulted in a significant increase in the population of captive pandas.

Female panda reproduction has been thoroughly studied, and it is well known that a panda's estrus, the state of sexual excitement that immediately precedes ovulation, occurs only once a year, sometime between February and May, and lasts only 24 to 72 hours. Few studies have examined male reproductive capacity and physiology in similar detail, and none involved sample sizes larger than one or two individuals.

Read on:  http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2012/04/120404161941.htm