What is the IUCN Red List status of the giant panda?

The giant panda is classified as Vulnerable on the IUCN Red List. Its scientific name is Ailuropoda melanoleuca, and it is a bear species found naturally only in China.

The panda’s status reflects serious conservation challenges, even though protection has improved its prospects. Farming, deforestation, roads, and other development fragmented the mountain forests where pandas live. Their dependence on bamboo also makes habitat quality especially important: pandas must spend much of the day feeding because bamboo is abundant but relatively low in usable energy.

China’s fourth national panda survey, conducted from 2011 to 2014 and published in 2015, estimated 1,864 wild pandas older than 1.5 years. The IUCN used this information to estimate roughly 2,060 pandas in total when dependent young were included. In 2016, the species was downlisted from Endangered to Vulnerable.

Vulnerable does not mean safe. Pandas remain dependent on protected habitat, coordinated conservation, and connected forest corridors. They are also listed in CITES Appendix I, which gives them the highest level of protection from international commercial trade.