Affect of Climate Change on the Giant Panda
Chundavi Lalloo
October 26,2018
Bio 216 Section 01
Term Paper
When one thinks about animals, the first kind to come to mind are the cute and cuddly ones versus the scaly frightening ones. Unfortunately, we tend to be more focused on their looks and actions rather than what is truly important, which is, their well-being. The average adult most likely doesn’t know what’s happening to some of the animals and their homes around the world today, just as they are unaware about the welfare of majority of the humans around the world. One of the animals that can be subjected to this is the Giant Panda (Ailuropoda Melanoleuca), these gentle mammals are constantly seen as loveable and cute. Little do we know, that Panda Bears could soon be facing a serious problem, they could eventually be in a battle against mother nature.
Research has come to show that the Pandas are threatened with a climate change that will ultimately affect their everyday lives. A life where the primary food source is bamboo, where habitat range is narrow, and where reproductive rates are low, is one that can be hard to maintain. To help maintain this life, there are factors that are considered when determining the suitability of the environment, such as, elevation, temperature, latitude, longitude, slope and vegetation (Gong et al, 2016, pg. 598). These factors are all essential to helping the Panda live a healthy life and have the greatest capability to reproduce successfully. The main land where Pandas can find suitable living factors is in the mountainous forests throughout China. These forests have been studied and preserved for the Pandas to live, as there are already enough human disturbances affecting the Panda lifestyle. Research of the Quinling Mountains has show that they are home to 18.6% wild Giant Pandas, and there are very suitable living conditions, for now. These mountains have a transitional climate that will exhibit subtropical and warm temperate zones, which are areas where Pandas will migrate from due to not wanting to be in temperatures warmer than 24°C (75°F) (Gong et al , 2016, pg.596-597). There are ultimate climate changes that are projected for the future, these changes are predicted to be life changing for Pandas, a fear of their extinction has arisen from such a change in the environment. The climate changes are projected to affect the several other preserved areas in China. In some areas the climate is changed to benefit the animals, causing a migration towards that area, and in others the change can cause such a shift that the population will show a significant decrease. But it shows that these environments are affected in one aspect or another (Wang et al, 2017, pg. 2).
Beyond the Quinling Mountains, other places like the Minshan Mountains, where now the living conditions are not strong, but, there are seen to have an increase in habitat stability by the year 2050 on the northwestern side. Currently th...
