The largest threat to pandas is the loss of habitat, as it is associated with many other problems.

 

As China’s population continues to grow more and more land is needed. In the face of development, the forests must go, be it for agriculture or construction use. Not only that, the forests are also logged for fuel and wood. While the Government banned logging in panda forests in 1998, some choose to break the law and still continue logging till this day.

 

As more and more forest is cleared, panda habitat becomes more fragmented, breaking what once used to be a large stretch of greenery into multiple same pockets of forest. This prevents travel to and from other forests, which is bad for two reasons:

 

Panda populations isolated

Not being able to travel between forest pockets, pandas would be isolated and unable to mix. This would lower reproduction rates as more pandas become unable to find mates. In the long-term, this may even result in inbreeding and weak offspring, as the gene pool is very small, being limited to the small number of pandas who live in that specific forest pocket.

 

While pandas are not social creatures, they still exhibit some social behavior, such as forming ‘gangs’. With less interaction with other members of their species, pandas may experience negative psychological effects, such as higher depression and stress.

 

More vulnerable to bamboo die-offs

Bamboo dies off every 40-100 years and would not bloom again for quite a few years. Thus, when the bamboo dies, pandas would have to travel to another bamboo forest for food.

When the forest was still connected, this would have been a simple task. However, now that the forest is fragmented, it would be very hard for pandas to travel to another area to find food, leading to starvation and death. This would cause panda population to decrease, as more and more pandas find themselves trapped in areas without food.

 

In addition, even without the problem of forest fragmentation, the loss of habitat means that there would be less food and other resources for pandas. This might overtax their environment and cause the collapse of the ecosystem they live in.

Pandas would die in the process.

 

Pandas are territorial creatures as well. By reducing the amount of space available, it is possible that there would be an increase in fighting among pandas for territory. This would result in more injuries and deaths for the pandas.

 

Hence, habitat loss is the single greatest threat to panda conservation efforts.