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The giant panda, commonly a symbol for conservation, is no longer considered an endangered species, according to the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN).
In an update to their Red List of Threatened Species on Sunday (Sept. 4), which assesses a species' conservation status, the IUCN reported the giant panda population has improved enough for the endangered species label to be downgraded to "vulnerable."
[...] Including cubs, the current [wild] population count is approaching 2,060, the organization said. The report credits forest protection and reforestation measures in China for increasing the available habitat for the species.
Including pandas living in captivity, the total population is approximately 2500.
http://www.livescience.com/55991-giant-pandas-no-longer-endangered.html
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Giant_panda
(Score: 3, Informative) by Thexalon on Wednesday September 07 2016, @01:30PM
There are already some significant success stories that conservationists can point to, actually:
- The bald eagle: Went from having 412 nesting pairs in the 1950's to about 50,000 pairs in the 1980's to now being common enough that they aren't even listed as "threatened" and are thus not being tracked all that closely.
- The California condor: This species had been reduced to 22 individual birds, total, by 1987. They were bred in captivity, and reintroduced to the wild in the early 1990's. There are now several hundred, with the wild population small but growing.
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