China announced this week that it has removed the giant panda from its list of endangered species, celebrating the status change as a success of China's long-term conservation efforts, including the creation of a giant national park for the iconic animals. "The panda population in the wild has risen to about 1,800, which reflects their improved living conditions and China's efforts in keeping their habitats integrated," Cui Shuhong, head of the Ministry of Ecology and Environment's Department of Nature and Ecology Conservation, said at a news conference.
China said it will still classify the giant panda, considered a national treasure, as vulnerable and protected under conservation laws. That puts China's status for pandas in line with the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), which switched the animals from endangered to vulnerable in 2016. A panda conservation staff member told China Daily that China solved several major breeding issues since 2000, and "since 2006, we have managed to breed an increasing number of pandas in captivity, and about nine of them survived after being released into the wild."
Subscribe to The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
-
Experts are split on the findings in RFK Jr.'s 'MAHA' reportIn the Spotlight The HHS secretary's report targeted processed foods and vaccines, among other things
-
Jony Ive changed the world with the iPhone. Can he do it again with OpenAI?Talking Points Ive is joining OpenAI, hoping to create another transformative piece of personal technology. Can lightning strike twice?
-
Elon Musk says he's 'done enough' political spending. What does that really mean?TODAY'S BIG QUESTION The world's richest man predicted he'd do 'a lot less' electoral financing moving forward. Has Washington seen the last of the tech titan?
-
Breakthrough gene-editing treatment saves babyspeed read KJ Muldoon was healed from a rare genetic condition
-
Sea lion proves animals can keep a beatspeed read A sea lion named Ronan beat a group of college students in a rhythmic dance-off, says new study
-
Humans heal much slower than other mammalsSpeed Read Slower healing may have been an evolutionary trade-off when we shed fur for sweat glands
-
Novel 'bone collector' caterpillar wears its preySpeed Read Hawaiian scientists discover a carnivorous caterpillar that decorates its shell with the body parts of dead insects
-
Scientists find hint of alien life on distant worldSpeed Read NASA's James Webb Space Telescope has detected a possible signature of life on planet K2-18b
-
Katy Perry, Gayle King visit space on Bezos rocketSpeed Read Six well-known women went into lower orbit for 11 minutes
-
Scientists map miles of wiring in mouse brainSpeed Read Researchers have created the 'largest and most detailed wiring diagram of a mammalian brain to date,' said Nature
-
Scientists genetically revive extinct 'dire wolves'Speed Read A 'de-extinction' company has revived the species made popular by HBO's 'Game of Thrones'
