Speaking of giant pandas,

I believe most people’s impression is that they are round and cute!

Giant pandas, also known as giant pandas, are a species unique to China and are known as Known as China's national treasure. The earliest "Eo-Panda" fossil was unearthed at least 8 million years ago. Because most of its contemporaneous animals have become extinct, only the giant panda survives to this day, so it is also known as a "living fossil". The main habitats of existing giant pandas are located in Sichuan, Shaanxi and Gansu provinces.

Tracing the name of the giant panda

In ancient Chinese classics, there are many names for giant pandas, including: "tapir", "tapir leopard", "white leopard", "ferocious leopard", "芲", or "tapir beast", "blanket", "flower bear", etc. . "Erya. Shi Beast" records: "Tapir, white leopard." The ancients also believed that the giant panda was Pixiu.

Distribution in historical periods

Giant panda remains have been found in the Neolithic sites of the mid-Holocene in Henan, Hubei, and Guangxi.

Giant panda skulls and teeth were unearthed during excavations at the tomb of Empress Dowager Bo, the mother of Emperor Wen of the Western Han Dynasty, located near Xi'an. A large number of bamboos were distributed on the northern slope of the Qinling Mountains in ancient times, and bamboo rat skeletons were unearthed from the Banpo site in Xi'an. This shows that giant pandas may have lived on the northern slope of the Qinling Mountains at least during the Western Han Dynasty. "Book of the Later Han Dynasty. Biography of the Southern Barbarians and Southwest Yi" records that there are "Beasts" in Yongchang County. Yongchang County in the Eastern Han Dynasty administered present-day Baoshan City in Yunnan, Dali Bai Autonomous Prefecture, and the vast areas on both sides of the Lancang and Nu Rivers west of Ailao Mountain, indicating that giant pandas were also distributed in western Yunnan.

Guo Pu of the Jin Dynasty wrote annotations for "The Classic of Mountains and Seas" and pointed out that "ferocious leopards" "came out of Sichuan", indicating that the Sichuan Basin and surrounding mountains were the main distribution and activity areas of giant pandas in the Jin Dynasty. The northern slope of the Qinling Mountains seemed There are no more giant pandas distributed. Moreover, from the late Eastern Han Dynasty to the late Southern and Northern Dynasties (AD 210-560), there was a cold period in my country's climate. The area of ​​bamboo forests in the north shrank significantly. From this, we can also judge that giant pandas must have less activity in the north.

1. The northernmost limit of bamboo forest distribution in the late 19th and early 20th centuries;

2. The northern limit of bamboo forest distribution in the Han Dynasty

3. The late 19th and early 20th century The northern limit of bamboo forest distribution in the early 19th century

Li Shizhen's "Compendium of Materia Medica" of the Ming Dynasty recorded: "Tapirs are sometimes found in Guizhou, Sichuan and Mount Emei today." This shows that there are distribution and activities of giant pandas in Guizhou and Sichuan. There were many local chronicles recording giant pandas in the Qing Dynasty, indicating that giant pandas were distributed in the northwest of Hunan Province; Tongzhi's "Revised Yongding County Chronicles" said that the product included "芲". In the Qing Dynasty, Yongding County, Hunan Province is now Zhangjiajie City, indicating that the Qing Giant pandas were once distributed in western Hubei Province in ancient times; in addition, Tongzhi's "Changyang County Chronicle" also recorded that the product included "tapir". The above records show that the bordering areas of Hunan, Hubei and Hubei were important distribution areas for giant pandas until the mid-to-late 19th century. . After the end of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th century, there are no records of giant pandas in these areas.

In general, the general trend of changes in the geographical distribution of giant pandas is that they gradually shrank in the early stages of history. In the middle of the century, giant pandas were widely distributed, and their geographical scope roughly included a large part of today's Guangxi, Guizhou, Hunan, and Hubei, as well as western Henan Province and the southern Shaanxi and Gannan regions south of the Qinling Mountains (there may also be large pandas on the north side of the Qinling Mountains). Panda distribution), as well as the entire Sichuan (including today's Chongqing City) and most areas of Yunnan. In the historical period, the distribution area of ​​giant pandas gradually shrank in Henan Province. It may have been early in the Qing Dynasty in the 18th century. , there are no giant pandas living in Guangxi. Until the mid-19th century, giant pandas still had several large distribution areas. The first area was the western Sichuan mountains and the western Yunnan mountains, and the second largest distribution area was. Qinling Mountains and Minshan Mountains. The third largest distribution area is eastern Sichuan, southeastern Sichuan, southwestern Hubei, northern Guizhou and northwestern Hunan. This is also a continuous distribution area. There is no large distribution area after the end of the 19th century. Records of pandas. By the 20th century, there were no records of giant pandas in western Yunnan.

1. The maximum distribution range of giant pandas in the mid-Holocene

2. Early Qing Dynasty (Before the end of the 17th century) The main distribution range of giant pandas

3. The main distribution areas of giant pandas at the beginning of the 20th century

Since 1970, under the auspices of relevant national departments, my country has carried out Four national censuses of giant pandas were conducted. The second census from 1985 to 1988 showed that there were more than 1,100 giant pandas. The third national census from 1999 to 2003 showed that the number of giant pandas was larger than that of the second national census. The results of the fourth census from 2011 to 2014 showed that as of the end of 2013, the number of wild giant pandas in the country reached 1,864, the number of captive giant pandas reached 375, and the wild giant panda habitat area was 258. Ten thousand hectares, with 910,000 hectares of potential habitat, are distributed in 17 cities (prefectures), 49 counties (cities, districts), and 196 towns and villages in Sichuan, Shaanxi, and Gansu provinces. The number has increased to 67.

The main reasons for the increase in the number of giant pandas

and the expansion of habitat areas

Recuperation and recuperation - "natural forest protection" and "retirement of farmland". "Reforestation" etc.

National Key Ecological Project

Since 1998, the state has banned natural forest logging in the middle and upper reaches of the Yangtze River and Yellow River. The distribution of giant pandas during the third national census Natural forest logging activities in the area have been completely stopped, and key ecological projects such as "natural forest protection" and "returning farmland to forests" have been gradually implemented. Benefiting from these policies, on the one hand, the original giant panda distribution area and its surrounding forests have been restored. After years of recuperation, the vegetation and bamboo forests in most areas have been naturally restored, objectively providing more habitats for giant pandas; on the other hand, with the cessation of large-scale forest management activities, some areas were originally densely populated Human interference activities have been significantly reduced, allowing giant panda populations that were originally isolated by roads and timber transportation traffic due to logging to communicate more smoothly. While reducing the risk of extinction of some local populations, it also increased the numbers of these populations. Growth has created opportunities

Expanding protection—the number of giant panda nature reserves and the protected area have increased

In 2001, the country officially launched the “National "Wildlife Protection and Nature Reserve Construction Project", various provincial and local governments have also paid increasing attention to the protection of giant pandas, established a number of new reserves, and invested increasing resources. Compared with the third national census At that time, the number of giant panda reserves increased by 27, and the area of ​​protected areas increased by approximately 11,800 square kilometers, an increase of 54.3%. The area of ​​giant panda habitats in nature reserves accounted for 53.8% of the total area of ​​giant panda habitats in the country. The proportion increased by 8 percentage points; the number of giant pandas in nature reserves accounted for 66.8% of the total number of giant pandas in the country, and the proportion increased by 5 percentage points. 13 provincial nature reserves were promoted to national nature reserves.

Due to the establishment of new protected areas and the improvement of the protection and management capabilities of the original protected areas, the originally large core population of giant pandas has been more effectively protected. The core population has further increased in number and its habitat range has also increased. expand. For example, the giant panda populations located in the central Qinling Mountains, the central Min Mountains, and the central Qionglai Mountains. These core populations account for more than two-thirds of the total number of wild giant pandas, and their individual population growth is also the largest contributor to the overall growth of the giant panda population. .

There is a long way to go to protect giant pandas in the future

It is difficult to be optimistic about local populations

According to the results of the fourth national census, the existing giant panda population is divided into 33 There are 24 local populations, of which 24 local populations (223 giant pandas, accounting for approximately 12.0% of the total wild population) have high survival risks, especially 18 local populations with less than 10 individuals. Due to natural isolation and human interference, there are many habitat patches, some of which are of poor quality, and the isolation between patches is severe. The connectivity of local populations and the rejuvenation of small populations face great challenges.

Humans and pandas "compete for territory"

Giant pandas are mainly distributed in the western mountainous areas of China. The rapid economic and social development in this area in recent years has also extended into the distribution of giant pandas. district. The number of roads, railways, and low-level county and rural roads continues to increase, and the density of the road network further increases; the construction of hydropower stations and mineral development are also increasing; and tourism development, which is the economic growth point of many mountainous areas, has also led to more tourism infrastructure construction and the growth in tourist numbers. These macro-social changes led by economic development have further aggravated habitat fragmentation and population isolation at the micro-scale in giant panda distribution areas. There is still a long way to go to protect giant pandas in the future.