Endangered Mammals - Bears And Pandas

Bears and pandas are imperiled worldwide. In 2002 seven species were listed as in immediate danger of extinction under Appendix I of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES): the giant panda (China), red panda (Himalayas), Asiatic black bear, sloth bear (Asia), sun bear (Asia), spectacled bear (South America), and grizzly bear (North America). U.S. bear species listed by the Fish and Wildlife Service in 2004 included the American black bear, the Louisiana black bear, and the grizzly bear.

Many bears are endangered due to habitat loss. According to the Fish and Wildlife Service, bears have been eliminated from about 50 to 75 percent of their natural ranges. Some bears have traditionally been hunted because they are considered predatory or threatening. Others are hunted for sport. In addition, bears are killed in large numbers by poachers, who sell bear organs and body parts in the illegal wildlife trade. These organs usually end up in Asia, where they are valued as ingredients in treatments for ailments or illnesses, or to delay the effects of aging—although there is no evidence that such treatments are effective.

Grizzly Bears

The grizzly bear was originally found throughout the continental United States, but has now been eliminated from every state except Colorado, Idaho, Montana, Washington, and Wyoming. In 2004, there were an estimated 1,000 individuals in the wild, down from some 50,000 to 100,000 FIGURE 7.6
Grizzly bear recovery zones before human interference. The grizzly bear has declined due primarily to aggressive hunting and habitat loss. It is listed as threatened under the Endangered Species Act.

Grizzly bears are large animals, standing four feet high at the shoulder when on four paws, and as tall as seven feet when upright. Males weigh 500 pounds on average but are sometimes as large as 900 pounds. Females weigh 350 pounds on average. Grizzlies have a distinctive shoulder hump, which actually represents a massive digging muscle. Their claws are two to four inches long. They are more aggressive than black bears.

The federal government has established recovery zones for the grizzly bear in Yellowstone National Park, the North Continental Divide, the Selkirk and Bitterroot Mountains in Idaho, the North Cascades, the San Juan Mountains in Colorado, and the Cabinet/Yaak area on the Canadian border. (See Figure 7.6.) Recovery plans for this species are coordinated under the Interagency Grizzly Bear Committee, which was created in 1983.

Giant Pandas

Few creatures have engendered more human affection than the giant panda, with its roly-poly character, small ears, and black eye patches on a snow-white face. Giant pandas are highly endangered, with only approximately 1,000 pandas in the wild and some one hundred individuals in captivity. Pandas are found only in portions of southwestern China, where they inhabit a few fragmentary areas of high altitude bamboo forest. Unlike other bear species, to which they are closely related, pandas have a vegetarian diet that consists entirely of bamboo. Pandas also have a "sixth digit" which functions like a thumb, and which they use to peel tender bamboo leaves from their stalks.

Pandas have become star attractions at many zoos, where they draw scores of visitors. Despite tremendous efforts, pandas have proven notoriously difficult to breed in captivity. The birth of a giant panda cub, named Hua Mei, at the San Diego Zoo in 1999 was a major event, with millions of people following the cub's progress online and in the papers through her first days of life. A second panda cub was born at the zoo in 2003. The San Diego Zoo pays China $1 million annually for the loan of the pandas. These funds are used to support panda conservation efforts in China, including the purchase of land for refuges as well as the development of habitat corridors to link protected areas. The agreement also requires that pandas born at the San Diego Zoo will be returned to China after they are three years old. Hua Mei was flown to China in February 2004 to join nearly seventy pandas at the Wolong Giant Panda Protection Research Centre in the Sichuan Province of China.

Red Pandas

The red panda is also called the lesser panda because it is significantly smaller than the giant panda. Red pandas are not, like giant pandas, related to bears—they are actually raccoon relatives. Red pandas are virtually extinct in the wild, mostly because of habitat loss and degradation. Red pandas occupy temperate forests in the foothills of the Himalayas in Nepal, Burma, and southwestern China at altitudes between 5,000 and 13,000 feet. They are solitary creatures, occupying non-overlapping home ranges of approximately one square mile for females and two square miles for males. Like giant pandas, red pandas eat bamboo, focusing on the most tender leaves. Because bamboo is not very nutritious, red pandas spend as much as thirteen hours each day eating in order to acquire the nutrients they need. Red pandas have difficulty recovering from population declines because of a slow rate of reproduction. A captive breeding effort for red pandas is underway at zoos across the world to prevent the complete extinction of this species. Over three hundred red pandas are found in captivity.