What do you know about pandas? Free English Vocabulary Activity

If you could help pandas, how would you do it?

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The black and white giant panda, a much-loved cultural icon of China, lives high in the bamboo forests in China’s mountains. But giant pandas have been in danger of becoming extinct for years, as humans have cut down bamboo forests, the panda’s habitat. In response, the Chinese government has come up with conservation programs and nature reserves to try to protect pandas and their habitats – spending about $255 million each year on the effort. Currently, about two-thirds of the world’s wild pandas live in sixty-seven nature reserves in China. «If we don’t help them, they’ll be extinct within the next thirty to fifty years,» says Zhang Hemin, deputy director of the China Conservation and Research Center for the Giant Panda.

Keeping pandas dependent on human care, however, is not a goal of conservation programs. Pandas must be able to survive in the wild. «That’s why we are training the captive-bred pandas for release,» explains Zhang.

Experts say pandas need two things in order to survive in nature. They need to be able to find enough bamboo – the main part of a panda’s diet – for themselves. They also need to claim their own territory, away from other pandas, because pandas don’t like to live in groups. And in order to survive as a species, pandas need to mate and reproduce.

China’s Wolong National Nature Reserve is home to about 150 giant pandas and has successfully bred more than 60 panda cubs. It aims to provide pandas with all the abilities they need to get by in the wild. First, scientists breed pandas in captivity. Then, mother pandas train their cubs in semi-wild sections of land, teaching them survival skills. Once cubs are independent, they are released into protected areas and watched closely using radio collars. These are special bands the pandas wear around their necks that send information to scientists about their movements and behavior.

Although not all of the pandas have survived in the wild, these conservation programs are very successful. The first of China’s nature reserves opened about forty years ago, and since then, the world’s panda population has taken off by 17%. In 2016, with more than 1,800 pandas living in the wild, their status improved from endangered to vulnerable.

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Its a hot day in the Woobleville Zoo, where the common animals frolic and play. However, a newcomer comes to town. To their surprise, its a panda. The panda, a kind-hearted animal, tries its best to fit in with the other bears in the zoo.