Subscribe to one of our news e-mail lists . While U.S. and Chinese government officials square off over an incident involving a U.S. spy plane and a Chinese jet fighter, a joint U.S.-Chinese research team is faulting China's efforts to save the giant panda from possible extinction. The study, funded by the U.S. government, will be released Friday in the journal Science.
Pandas are mammals and are part of the bear family.
They're most genetically similar to bears, although they branched off of the bear line about 3 million years ago. From 1975 to 1995, the human population in the preserve has increased 70 percent, a rise that bests population increases in some areas lying outside the preserve in China's Sichuan province. The population rise has led to more trees being cut down for fuel, farming and road work. The panda population in the preserve has plummeted from 145 in 1974 to 72 in 1986. No current figure on panda population in the area is available, but Michigan State University biologist Jianguo Liu, the lead researcher on the project, said the population is most likely lower.