Pandas cling to survival in China

'Just don't have room for populations to grow'

Giant pandas of China face an uncertain future because of habitat loss.

By Gary Strieker
CNN Environmental Correspondent

(CNN) -- There is probably no other animal so widely identified with wildlife conservation, but the giant panda's future is still seriously threatened.

The main reason is loss of habitat. The pandas need more large areas of forest so they can stabilize their numbers and multiply.

Only about 1,100 still survive in the wild, along the edge of the Tibetan plateau in China.

Most of them live in small fragments of mountain forest protected by a network of some 30 or so nature reserves.

But there are large tracts of good habitat outside the preserves that are unprotected, which could be the key to the panda's long-term survival.

In a recent study published in Science magazine, researchers warn that giant pandas could face extinction if confined to existing reserves.

"Populations would be too small to withstand random natural events such as forest fires. Their major food source, bamboo, could die off, which it does naturally. Small reserves just don't have room for populations to grow," said Colby Loucks, report co-author and conservation scientist with the World Wildlife Fund.

China provides strong support for panda conservation, but experts say more effort is needed to protect panda habitat, such as creating more reserves, making existing ones larger and linking them together.

Such actions would allow isolated populations of pandas to make contact with each other.

Giant pandas do not reproduce well in captivity, but if given enough space in the wild, experts say, they will take care of the rest.