Yes, giant pandas can survive in the wild without human protection

Giant pandas are adorable bears with distinctive black-and-white fur and are considered a national treasure in China. They’re also beloved in the United States and around the world.

Several social media posts question whether giant pandas can survive in the wild without human protection. Reasons include videos showing pandas falling from trees, rocks and down hills, general extreme clumsiness, as well as alleged inability to reproduce without human help. Recent online searches show many people are wondering if this is true.

THE QUESTION

Can giant pandas survive in the wild without human protection?

THE SOURCES

• World Wildlife Fund
• The Nature Conservancy
• Smithsonian’s National Zoo & Conservation Biology Institute
• San Diego Zoo Wildlife Alliance
• The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species
• Colby Loucks, vice president and deputy lead for the Wildlife Program at the World Wildlife Fund
• Ron Swaisgood, Ph.D., director of recovery ecology for the San Diego Zoo Wildlife Alliance

THE ANSWER

Yes, giant pandas can survive in the wild without human protection.

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WHAT WE FOUND

Contrary to online claims, wild giant pandas can survive without human protection, according to our sources. Giant pandas have lived in bamboo forests in their native China for several million years.

“Pandas are perfectly able to survive on their own, without human protection, in the wild – and have been doing so for millions of years,” Colby Loucks, vice president and deputy lead for the Wildlife Program at the World Wildlife Fund, told VERIFY.

The World Wildlife Fund says the wild giant panda population was once widespread throughout southern and eastern China, as well as neighboring Myanmar and northern Vietnam. But the species is now restricted to bamboo forests in mountain ranges in China's Sichuan, Shaanxi and Gansu provinces. This is primarily due to habitat destruction caused by expanding human populations and development in the countries.

“Giant pandas are under increasing threats from habitat loss and the fragmentation of their forest homes – yet have shown a resiliency to survive and thrive in the mountains of central China,” Loucks said.

In addition to habitat destruction, the San Diego Zoo Wildlife Alliance says wild giant pandas, who are generally solitary as adults, have a brief mating season and a slow reproductive rate. Mature female pandas typically breed just once every two or three years and may bear about five litters in their lifetime in their native habitat. Other factors that impact the wild giant panda population include bamboo shortages and hunting. 

Back in 1957, giant panda protection efforts began in China, according to the San Diego Zoo Wildlife Alliance, and in 1989, the Chinese Ministry of Forestry and the World Wildlife Fund formulated a management plan for the wild giant panda and its native habitat.

After years of decline, the wild population of giant pandas has grown to 1,864 as of the last giant panda survey in 2015, according to Loucks, which he says “is a 17% population increase when compared to the previous survey conducted in 2003.”

In an email, Ron Swaisgood, director of recovery ecology for the San Diego Zoo Wildlife Alliance, noted that giant pandas are now considered “conservation-dependent.” That means wildlife conservation groups work together with China “to continue with the protective and restoration activities that have helped bring about the recovery of the species.”

Swaisgood says these wildlife conservation efforts resulted in giant pandas being downlisted from endangered to vulnerable on the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List of Threatened Species in 2016. The IUCN Red List is the world’s most comprehensive information source on the global extinction risk status of animal, fungus and plant species.

“Continued panda conservation means preventing logging, livestock encroachment and working to recover the bamboo forests that pandas depend on,” Swaisgood said.

“It does not mean that pandas can’t survive perfectly well in protected habitats that provide suitable resources, such as plenty of bamboo to eat and safe places to raise a cub,” Swaisgood added.

In 2020, China established the Giant Panda National Park to better protect wild giant pandas. The national park is currently home to about 1,340 pandas, about 70% of China’s total, according to China’s CGTN network. It will connect around 67 wild giant panda reserves in the country.

While there are currently close to 1,900 giant pandas living in the wild, another 600 pandas live in zoos and breeding centers around the world, according to the Smithsonian's National Zoo and Conservation Biology Institute in Washington, D.C.

VERIFY previously reported that the National Zoo’s three giant pandas, who are in the U.S. on loan, are set to return to China in mid-November. After their departure, the only giant pandas left in the U.S. will be returned in 2024.