Giant pandas have beautiful black and white furs, which are very unique and distinctive. This makes their furs popular among fur collectors as coats, wall hangings, carpets and other such decorations. Due to this high demand and the rarity of the giant pandas, poachers would be able to sell off panda fur for exorbitant prices. In fact, at one point, the fur trade was one of China’s largest industries, bringing in over $US 23 million in the first half of 1934. Other panda parts can also be sold, such as their paws.

At the same time, giant pandas are peaceful and easily spotted creatures who stay mostly on the ground, making them easy to hunt and kill. This makes them popular prey of poachers, who would be able to make high profits with minimal effort and danger. Thus, poachers heavily hunted pandas, especially in the 1980s and 1990s.

This increased the threat towards giant panda populations and pushed the species closer to extinction.

 

However, the Chinese government stepped in and passed strict laws against poaching. For example, until 1997, when they revised their legislation to be more humane, poaching merited the death penalty. Even now, panda poaching still carries a heavy penalty of more than 10 years jail time. This was accompanied by public education that sought to increase awareness of the panda’s plight.

 

Hefty rewards were also offered to villagers who brought injured pandas to panda bases. This amount of money acted as incentives for the villagers to want to protect pandas and dislike poaching. This was expensive and there were some complaints by critics. However, the point of this measure was to save the pandas and it was very successful at that.

 

However, while cases of specific poaching of pandas have gone down, pandas are still affected by poaching of other animals. When poachers hunt animals who live in the same habitat as the giant pandas, their guns and traps can harm or kill the pandas.

 

Also, there are still some poachers who break the law and continue hunting pandas.

 

Thus, poaching is a threat to Giant Pandas.