The past population of the red panda is 20,000, the current population of the red panda is less than 10,000, and the the future population will be 6,000 or less if we don’t do anything. The population has decreased over time mostly because of poaching and habitat destruction. The things that have contributed to the endangerment of the red panda is “human activity, poaching, climate change, and people moving into the red panda habitat with their herds and dogs” (Glatson 2). Also another threat that still exist today is logging. For example, “Habitat destruction is the biggest threat facing red pandas today” (Red Panda Network 1). In rebuttal, people have slowed down the habitat invasion quite a bit because they have found out that invading their habitat is bad for the red pandas, but the habitat destruction has not been stopped as much as we think, people are still destroying their environment. Also, people are trying to find homes for them because they have finally realized that red pandas are vital to our ecosystem and environment.
The current plan that has been put in is that, as it explains in the video, they have developed a breeding center for the red pandas for them to hopefully bring more to the earth and hopefully release them to the wild to get their population into normal numbers. For example, “Protecting the red panda goes in the hand with protecting its habitat. In the past, the dense root systems and undergrowth of Nepal’s forests could be relied upon to retain moisture and slow water runoff. Recently, however, logging and other forms of forest degradation have upset this balance and sent rich soil cascading down mountainsides with the annual monsoons” (Roberts 4). People have been preventing the chopping down of trees (destroying their habitat) and in some places the poaching of these animals is not allowed. In addition, the red panda eats insects and insects destroy farmers crops and without a predator, these insects will destroy the earth environmental way of gaining food.
