1 Tahrcountry Musings: Reuniting panda populations in China

Wednesday, May 17, 2006

Reuniting panda populations in China

Chinese Forestry Department of Shaanxi Province and WWF'’s China Programme have launched a programme to build up an ecological corridor to reunite two isolated panda populations. The two Tianhuashan and Xinglongling panda sub-populations in the Qinling Mountains were separated 23 years ago by the construction of a National Road. In 1999, the completion of a tunnel led to the abandonment of a 13km section of the highway. This created an opportunity to form a corridor. The work was initiated in 2005. The green bamboo corridor is turning out to be a reality now. There is new hope for the Panda. According to a WWF-Chinese government survey, there are nearly 1,600 pandas in the wild.

5 comments:

Jade L Blackwater said...

What a wonderful project! Have you heard about the "wildlife overpasses" that have been created over major highways (this was either in Alaska, or Canada)? There are "underpasses" as well, and I believe that cameras at these locations have shown that they are actually used! I can't wait to see the results of the new Panda Connection!

Mohan Alembath said...

While perusing the website of Banff National Park(http://www.mountainnature.com/Articles/CrossingStructures.htm)I read that overpasses were more effective because underpasses were not effective for large carnivores.

Anonymous said...

Thank u jlb and Tahrman. That was indeed good info

Jade L Blackwater said...

Thanks for the link Tahrman!

Here is a recent article in the New York Times about another venture into the same thing:

Home on the Range: A Corridor for Wildlife
By CORNELIA DEAN
Published: May 23, 2006
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/05/23/science/earth/23corr.html

Mohan Alembath said...

Thanks for the link jlb. That was a good one.