Giant Pandas: Beacons of Hope for Conservation
IUCN Conservation Status: Vulnerable
With their playful nature, giant pandas inspire love for their species worldwide. Native to the old-growth forests of mountainous Southwestern China, these bears rely on an abundance of shelter and water, as well as access to different bamboo species, to thrive. Unfortunately, during the last century, their ecosystems have drastically changed due to habitat loss and climate change, shrinking their ranges, decreasing their food supply, and leading to population declines.
Over the past 30 years, we’ve worked with our partners in China, including the China Wildlife Conservation Association, to create a foundation of hope, friendship, and collaboration and make a difference for giant pandas. When our partnership first began, we didn’t know if it was possible to save pandas from troubling challenges, including low reproductive rates, bamboo scarcity, habitat fragmentation, and other threats. But after decades of united efforts, giant pandas were downlisted from Endangered to Vulnerable on the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List of Threatened Species, showing us that when we come together, anything is possible. We’re taking this hope and understanding into our next chapter as we work to secure the future for this iconic and vulnerable species.
A Collaborative Foundation
In the 1990s, panda populations began to decline, and their future was uncertain. As part of the transformational 1994 agreement with China Wildlife Conservation Association, San Diego Zoo Wildlife Alliance committed to learning more about pandas’ reproductive physiology, behavior, ecology, and health needs. This ongoing work was supported by two pandas, Bai Yun and Shi Shi, who came to the San Diego Zoo in 1996 through a critical conservation breeding program—which would ultimately change giant panda conservation forever. In 1999, the San Diego Zoo welcomed a cub through the first successful artificial insemination of a giant panda outside China. This little one, Hua Mei, went on to become the first to survive and thrive in the United States. In the following decades, five more panda cubs were born at the Zoo. Each was a vital addition to the global population of their then-endangered species.
We also furthered other approaches for the long-term, sustainable conservation of giant pandas. We helped develop a giant panda milk formula and contributed to neonatal techniques, increasing the survival of nursery-reared cubs from less than 10 percent to more than 90 percent. By applying insights about giant pandas’ health and welfare shared by our Chinese partners, panda reproductive success improved, and our collective knowledge increased.
Inspiring Action
We’ve made great strides to save giant pandas over the last few decades, but they still need our help. In 2024, we began a new era in panda conservation with our partners in China. Our collaboration is framed by “One Health,” a concept recognizing that the health of wildlife, people, and the planet are inextricably connected. This approach informs conservation decisions as we work toward a future with fully flourishing ecosystems and abundant, sustainable giant panda populations.
Together we’re leveraging innovative, cutting-edge technologies to address the most pressing current threats pandas face, including habitat fragmentation, population isolation, livestock grazing, the spread of livestock-borne illness, and climate change. Collaborative, strategic planning will guide our efforts to comprehensively care for the well-being of giant pandas, people, and the ecosystems we all share.
Today, about 1,800 giant pandas remain in their native habitats, and because of our historic collaborative efforts, that number is steadily increasing. Over the last few decades, we’ve created a strong foundation of friendship and collaboration with our partners in order to protect giant pandas for generations to come. As we continue to work and learn together, we have giant hope for the future of these charismatic bears, and for wildlife worldwide.