Close Up: Pandas vs. Deforestation

Many, many animals call forests homes, such as the endangered Giant Panda. The Giant Panda can be found in biologically rich, lush temperate and calm forests. The forests are thriving with many different types of bamboo. Although these adorable, but not huggable animals are considered carnivores, their diet consists mainly of bamboo, thirty different species to be exact. Some eat up to 83 pounds a day, so it’s obvious that bamboo is crucial to their survival (Animal Bytes: Giant Panda). Pandas are not fond of humans or noise, so as we invade their space and homes by destroying forests, they move to look or more desirable locations to live. Urbanization, fragmentation and deforestation continue to destroy and obliterate their natural habitat, and they cannot keep moving forever if Earth’s forests are disappearing faster than we think (Lewin). Firewood, timber and cultivation are on our minds and all they have is bamboo on theirs. As bamboo begins to die of, so do the pandas. Poachers and hunters can easily target pandas now that their habitats have been fragmented. Inbreeding in these small populations becomes more frequent and causes diseases and deformities. Diseases are effortlessly spread in these smaller spaces.