Pandas face food shortages as bamboos come to end of lifespan

Chinese experts warned that pandas could face hunger as more bamboo plants, the animals' staple food, come to the end of their lifespan.

Yang Xuyu, deputy head of the Wild Animal Preservation Station of the Sichuan provincial forestry bureau, issued the warning during the annual meeting of the China Giant Panda Breeding Technical Committee in Chengdu last Sunday.

Yang said that the station has noted that 24,000 ha of bamboo flowering in Sichuan, home to 1,206 wild pandas. Yang said that while no wild pandas have been found dead of starvation, the severity of the threat to the pandas' food supply will be monitored as the area of bamboo flowering spreads.

According to Xinhua, in 1984 and 1987, hundreds of wild pandas died of starvation when the arrow bamboo, the pandas' favorite food bloomed. The mass flowering of bamboo plants, the state media said, poses a major threat to the survival of wild pandas.

Yang said that wild pandas used to adapt to the natural recurrence of bamboo die-offs, an event that occurs about every 60 years. However, human activities have blocked the migration paths of the panda.

The forestry bureau has carried out a panda rescue drive, sending preservation staff to local panda habitats "to provide guidance and supervision," Yang said. The bureau has also partnered with the World Wildlife Fund to draft a plan of restoring the pandas' migration path.