Return to Transcripts main page

CNN Live At Daybreak

Time Running Out on the Giant Panda

Aired February 06, 2002 - 05:57   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: They are perhaps among the most heartwarming animals on the planet, pandas in zoos, and there aren't many of them, but boy do they draw the oohs and aahs (ph) from a lot of people. But as we learn in this report from CNN's Gary Strieker, time may be running out on the giant panda.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

GARY STRIEKER, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): There's probably no other animal so widely identified with wildlife conservation, but the giant panda's future is still seriously threatened.

(on camera): The main reason is loss of habitat. The pandas need more large areas of forest so they can stabilize their numbers and multiply.

(voice-over): Only about 1,100 giant pandas still survive in the wild along the edge of the Tibetan Plato (ph) in China, most of them in small fragments of mountain forests protected by a network of nature reserves. But there are large tracks of good habitat that are unprotected outside the reserves, and these areas could be the key to the panda's long-term survival.

In a recent study published in "Science" magazine, researchers warn giant pandas could face extinction if confined to existing reserves.

COLBY LOUCKS, WORLD WILDLIFE FUND: They would be susceptible to inbreeding depression, populations would be too small to withstand random natural events such as forest fire. Their major food source, bamboo, could die off, which it does naturally. Small reserves just don't have room for populations to grow.

STRIEKER: China provides strong support for panda conservation, but experts say even more efforts are needed to protect panda habitats across wider landscapes, creating more reserves, making them larger and linking them together, allowing isolated populations of pandas to make contact with each other.

Giant pandas do not breed easily in captivity, but in the wild, say the experts, pandas will thrive if we give them enough space to coexist with us.

Gary Strieker, CNN. (END VIDEOTAPE)

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com