The Pandas of Chengdu

Saturday 15th September.

The Giant Panda is synonymous with China in the same way that the Koala is with Australia. But pandas are in a more precarious state with a total population of less than 2,000 in the world.

The 2003 survey produced a count of about 1,500 in the wild and there are a couple of hundred in captivity.

25 years ago, a natural event with the Arrow Bamboo, the main food source of this remarkable animal, saw their wild population slashed from the then estimated level of about 1,000 down to 800. The event was the once in 50 years flowering cycle of the bamboo followed by a mass die-off. Starvation and sickness took a heavy toll.

The wild population has now made an encouraging recovery to more than 1,500 and the future looks promising.

Our visit to the Chengdu Base Research Centre was one of the highlights of our tour.