An unusually higher number of sightings of the wild giant panda by the local people and forest officials in northwest China’s Gansu Province indicates the growing numbers of the endangered species, officials said on Friday. Helped by bans on logging and creation of nature reserves, Gansu’s wild giant panda population rose almost 13 per cent to 132 between the beginning of the 21st century and 2014, when the latest official census was conducted.
At the end of 2013, there were 1,864 giant pandas living in the wild in China, an increase of 268, or 16.8 per cent, from 2003, according to the State Forestry Administration. The Panda’s mainly live in southeastern Gansu, where locals have reported seeing one or more pandas five times in 2015, often near their homes. Many more such sightings are likely to have gone unreported. On November 27, a resident of Zhouqu in Gannan Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture came across a seemingly distressed baby panda in Chagangliang Nature Reserve, one of the province’s seven reserves for giant pandas.