panda

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The giant panda (scientific name: Ailuropoda melanoleuca), also known as the big cat bear, generally known as “panda” or “cat bear”, belongs to the carnivorous bear family of mammals, the body color is black and white. The panda is endemic to China, and its main remaining habitats are the mountainous areas around the Sichuan Basin in central and western China and the Qinling region in southern Shaanxi. There are approximately 2,060 giant pandas in the wild worldwide (2016 data [2]). In late 2016, the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) downgraded the giant panda’s threat rating from “endangered” to “vulnerable.” [3]

In 2021, the State Council of the People’s Republic of China issued a white paper entitled “Biodiversity Conservation in China”, which said that the number of giant pandas in the wild has increased from 1,114 40 years ago to 1,864, reducing the threat level of giant pandas from “endangered” to “vulnerable”. It is a national treasure of Chinese mainland. Giant pandas are known as living fossils of the biological world [4].

The black and white appearance of giant pandas makes them popular and has a large number of fans all over the world. When WWF was founded in 1961, it was symbolized by the giant panda, which has become the most important symbol of endangered species protection; Giant pandas are also an important representative of China’s friendship with each other in diplomatic activities, and Joseph Nair, an American scholar of international politics, has bluntly said that giant pandas are regarded as an important pillar of China’s soft power, similar to the British royal family

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distribution The fossil record has been found in the Yellow River, Yangtze and Pearl River basins in the southeast, Zhoukoudian in Beijing in the north, and Vietnam, Thailand and northern Myanmar in the south, and is the main member of the giant panda-saber-toothed fauna of southern China. Due to the influence of geology, climate change and human activities, the current distribution is limited to 102°00’~108°11’E, 27°53’~35°35’N [34], and the lofty mountains of Sichuan, Gansu and Shaanxi (from the upper reaches of the Yangtze River to the edge of the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, including the Qinling, Minshan, Qionglai Mountains, Xiaoxiangling and Xiaoliangshan mountain and other mountain systems). In the Qinling Mountains, it is mainly distributed in the foothills of its southern slope, including Foping, Yangxian, Taibai, Ningshaan, Zhouzhi, etc. in Shaanxi; In Minshan is mainly distributed in Wen County in Gansu Province, Pingwu, Qingchuan, Beichuan, Nanping, Songpan, Maowen, Mianzhu, Pengxi, Shifang, Dujiangyan, etc. in Sichuan Province; In Qionglai Mountain, it is distributed in Baoxing, Wenchuan, Tianquan, Dayi, Lushan, Qionglai, Chongqing, Kangding, Luding and other places in Sichuan Province; It is distributed in Hongya, Mianning, Asbestos and Kowloon counties; In the big and small Liangshan mountains, it is mainly distributed in Mabian, Meigu and Yuexi in Sichuan. The suitable distribution of giant pandas should have bamboo forest distribution and sufficient water source conditions. [Note 35]

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