Giant Pandas, Symbol of Conservation, Are No Longer Endangered
Great apes, meanwhile, are plummeting toward extinction, an international group of conservation experts announced Sunday.
Honolulu, HawaiiEfforts to save the giant panda, a worldwide symbol of wildlife conservation for half a century, are paying off: The iconic black-and-white bear is no longer endangered, the international body for species protection said on Sunday.
Native to Chinese bamboo forests, the panda was upgraded from endangered to vulnerable on the Red List of Threatened Species, managed by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN). The newest update to the list includes 82,954 species, 23,928 of which are threatened with extinction. (Also see “20,000 Species Are Near Extinction: Is it Time to Rethink How We Decide Which to Save?”)
Giant panda populations in the wild have risen steadily by 17 percent in the decade up to 2014,
