The mountains are shrouded in heavy clouds with torrential rains or dense mist throughout the year. In most of the areas in which they still roam wild, they must compete with farmers who work the river valleys and the lower slopes of the mountains. The different varieties of bamboo the pandas eat go through periodic die-offs as part of their renewal cycle. Without the ability to move to new areas where the bamboo is still alive, the pandas will die of starvation. The bamboo die-offs also put the giant pandas in more direct contact with farmers and poachers as the bears try to find new areas in which to feed.
Some Chinese scientists are critical of panda cloning.
Pan Wenshi, a Beijing University professor who has spent more than 20 years studying pandas, maintains that the most urgent task for saving the giant panda is to expand protected areas and guarantee them a large, natural habitat, preventing poaching and other threats to their survival. Professor Li Changben, at Fudan University's Institute of Genetics said in 1997 when panda cloning was first proposed that cloning of a living organism has the power to be used for both good and evil. Cloning is like nuclear energy. All Rights Reserved. Inc. All Rights Reserved.