Well over 100 pandas continue to languish in captive breeding programs and zoos. Wild pandas do not share the reproductive problems of captive pandas, the researchers note. In their natural state, all adult females and males appear to be involved in breeding. A 1999 study found that only 28 percent of adult pandas in captivity are breeding. As a result, habitat protection should be the highest conservation priority for pandas, the report concludes.
Giant pandas prefer a diet of various bamboo species.
Their diet consists almost entirely of various bamboo species found in high mountain areas. Low in nutrients, bamboo provides enough nourishment for survival but little extra. Because bamboo periodically dies out in unpredictable periods that range from 10 to 20 years, panda habitat fluctuates over time. When entire bamboo forests wither away, pandas can starve to death if they aren't able to move to another area. Due to an increasingly small genetic pool, fragmented panda populations also risk interbreeding, which could lead to reduced resistance to disease, less adaptability to environmental change and a decrease in reproductive rates.