Climate change may reduce giant panda habitat by half in 70 years

By Clara Moskowitz, LiveScience Senior Writer
4 April 2012 For all their cuteness, giant pandas are in a tight spot. There are fewer than 1,600 pandas left in the wild, and a new study found that more than half of the bears’ already diminished natural habitat will be unlivable in 70 years thanks to climate change. […] Though pandas are the pride of many zoos around the world, their situation in the wild is growing dire. One of the greatest threats to the furry creatures is habitat loss from climate change and human encroachment, scientists say. While the species used to roam over most of southeastern China, northern Myanmar, and northern Vietnam, now pandas are limited to six mountain ranges between the Sichuan plain and Tibetan plateau. And that habitat is looking to grow much smaller, with pandas set to lose 60 percent of their current range due to climate change by 2080, researchers reported in a paper published in the International Journal of Ecology in March. That’s a loss of more than 6,200 square miles (16,000 square kilometers). As global temperatures become warmer, on average, the panda-suitable habitats will move to higher elevations and latitudes, according to climate models. In addition to pandas’ limited geographic range, the species has other traits that suggest climate change could hit it hard. “Giant pandas have a narrow range, do not disperse over large distances, produce one cub every two to three years, and depend on bamboo for 99 percent of their diet,” the researchers, led by Melissa Songer of the Smithsonian Conservation Biology Institute, wrote in their paper. “These traits suggest they will be highly susceptible to climate change.” […]

Half of Giant Panda Habitat May Vanish in 70 Years, Scientists Say