The picky pandas feed mainly on the bamboo canes, but are not ready to eat them when they bloom; Now the bears may starve
Patrick Barkham, Guardian, Haaretz, News and Walla!
Panda bears in China. The accelerated development of industry threatens the bears' natural environment
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Hundreds of giant pandas that live in western China may die of starvation, following the increased flowering of the bamboo fields from which they feed. A panda bear must eat a huge amount of bamboo canes - about half its body weight every day - to survive, but the bears refuse to eat the canes when they are in bloom. The real problem is that after the flowering period the bamboo canes wither; The bamboo flowers produce seeds before they die, but it takes about ten years for a new field to bloom.
The panda bears, which have been in serious danger of extinction for decades, live mainly in the provinces of Sichuan and Shanxi in western China. Until now, the massive flowering phenomenon in the bamboo fields - which repeats itself once every 60 years - has usually occurred in different areas and at different times; However, this year, unexpectedly, the bamboo fields began to bloom in the two largest districts at the same time.
The flowering phenomenon, and following it also the wilting of the bamboo fields, was recorded to one degree or another in all the areas where the 1,590 panda bears live in China. Concerned environmentalists warn that the entire panda population in China is at risk of starvation. They also urged local residents not to evict pandas from their territory, in case they approach towns and villages in desperate search of food.
However, the activists are also trying to hold on to the hope that there is more to be done: in the 70s, Camilla's mass destruction of bamboo fields caused the death of about 250 pandas, but a study conducted after Camilla revealed that the pandas were able to survive in areas where there was more than one type of bamboo. Some of the efforts to help the bears will focus on planting bamboo varieties.
In the Baishuijang reserve, one of the largest nature reserves for pandas in China, the inspectors have already begun to anxiously monitor the condition of the bears. The reserve's bamboo fields, which cover more than 70 thousand dons, have recently begun to bloom - and the reserve says that at least 22 of the 102 bears in the reserve are already showing signs of hunger.
The director of the reserve told the Chinese news agency "Xinhua" that the elderly and weaker animals will be the first to receive help, and will be moved, if necessary, to areas where there are bamboo fields where they can eat.
The fear of the pandas dying of starvation arises only three months after the publication of a special report in China, which announced a 40% increase in the panda population, from 1,114 to 1,590, an increase attributed to the desperate conservation efforts made in Azor. In addition to their great pickiness in matters of food and their slow rate of breeding, the continued existence of the panda bears is also in danger due to the rapid rate of growth in industry and agriculture in China, which threatens to gradually erode the bears' natural environment.
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