The giant panda's population started to decline rapidly in the wake of the Second Sino-Japanese War and the Chinese Civil War, and the population boom in China after 1949 created stress on the pandas' habitat and the subsequent famines led to the increased hunting of wildlife, including pandas. Studies and conservation activities on the pandas were stopped during the Cultural Revolution. In spite of the attempts to save the declining panda population through the Wolong National Nature Reserve being set up in 1958, it was simply too late, and the giant panda's end was inevitable.
How can this be changed? How can the giant panda be saved from extinction, and how much different would it be if the giant panda was still alive?
 
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Well, a more successful captive breeding program could have worked, much like how the Baiji is still around, even if it is just a few hundred specimens left with almost a third of the 600 or so Baiji left being in captivity.
 
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Not having a chunk of them literally eaten by starving peasants during the Cultural Revolution or the Great Leap Forward, or any of Anquing's various bouts of madness. The reign of the two Maos, Zedong and Anquing, killed so many people, not surprised the pandas suffered too.

Wanna save millions AND the pandas? Keep the Chicoms out of power, or at least don't have them go even harder left after Mao Zedong died. Otherwise, the only Pandas left will be the ones smuggled out like OTL.
 
Don't forget the red pandas of the Himalaya (to be more precise, the Indian, Nepalese, and Bhutanese portions), even if they are outside the scope of this question.

Thank goodness they're smaller and easier to both smuggle out and bred in captivity, no zoo in America doesn't have at least a couple pairs. The Red Panda may be the only panda once the last few older giant pandas in London, San Diego and Atlanta die.
 
One thing that might have helped the Giant Panda is have the wider world become aware of them earlier. Let's face it, the things are pretty darn cute and when awareness of them started to spread people in the US and Europe who can afford to have first world problems suddenly wanted them saved but it was too late. Like others have said, a few were smuggled out and a few still live in zoos but the captive breading programs have failed and now it is just a matter of time.
 
Photo of possible wild giant panda?

giantpanda.jpg
 
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I thought that picture was taken at the US National Zoo's research refuge in Front Royal, Virginia out near Shenandoah National Park. In fact, didn't the zoo employee who took it and tried to claim it was taken in China get caught and get in a lot of trouble?
 
It appears that you are correct. The Chinese government has also confirmed that there are no wild specimens living in the province that the photo was claimed to have been taken in (Sichuan).

It should also be worth noting that the giant panda is quite controversial in China. During the Cold War, the giant panda became an anti-communist symbol to represent the devastating effects of communism. "Panda" then became an ironic slur to refer to Maoists (particularly Chinese ones) and then communists generally, and then evolved into an anti-Chinese racial slur ("panda" can be used in either context). To this day, the giant panda is often used as an anti-communist symbol and has been associated with conservatism and even the far-right. The modern Chinese government has largely censored the panda in media. I wonder if the giant panda would be seen in a different light if it didn't become extinct, perhaps a symbolism of Chinese pride even?
 
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It appears that you are correct. The Chinese government has also confirmed that there are no wild specimens living in the province that the photo was claimed to have been taken in (Sichuan).

It should also be worth noting that the giant panda is quite controversial in China. During the Cold War, the giant panda became an anti-communist symbol to represent the devastating effects of communism. "Panda" then became an ironic slur to refer to Maoists (particularly Chinese ones) and then communists generally, and then evolved into an anti-Chinese racial slur ("panda" can be used in either context). To this day, the giant panda is often used as an anti-communist animal and has been associated with conservatism and even the far-right. The modern Chinese government has largely censored the panda in media. I wonder if the giant panda would be seen in a different light if it didn't become extinct, perhaps a symbolism of Chinese pride even?

That and you have the terms Panda Hugger and Panda Slugger for those in the US and elsewhere who favor certain policy positions toward the PRC.
 
Fake as hell, that’s clearly a dude in a bear costume.
No, it isn't. There are just enough details to make it clear that it's an actual bear. It's just that it's a black bear cub—either a photomanip, or the victim of a strategic bleach job.
 
Weren't they evolutionary impass? A great carnivore eating bamboo but still with the digestive track and fauna to eat meat. This animal needed to eat all the time to meet their need. And let's not forget their disinterest for reproduction, and if by miracle it happen the female often discard it's youngs.
 
Panda might be de-extinct soon. The main problem in captive Panda is, by coincidences all Panda smuggled out of China is female. There are recent paper about in-vitro fertilization of Panda eggs cell with another eggs cell.
 
Panda might be de-extinct soon. The main problem in captive Panda is, by coincidences all Panda smuggled out of China is female. There are recent paper about in-vitro fertilization of Panda eggs cell with another eggs cell.
That's pseudo science.
 
Pretty much ASB. A giant bear species that basically spends most of it’s time eating bamboo and doesn’t like making more of themselves, how exactly do you think they will survive? Elephants are massive and dangerous, Rhinos even more so, but they too are dying out. A giant slow vegetarian bear was destined to go extinct, especially when it’s located in China.
 
Not having a chunk of them literally eaten by starving peasants during the Cultural Revolution or the Great Leap Forward, or any of Anquing's various bouts of madness. The reign of the two Maos, Zedong and Anquing, killed so many people, not surprised the pandas suffered too.

Wanna save millions AND the pandas? Keep the Chicoms out of power, or at least don't have them go even harder left after Mao Zedong died. Otherwise, the only Pandas left will be the ones smuggled out like OTL.

(okay I know this is a DBWI but this is the strangest and most out there thing I've read in a long ass time, you know this isn't ASB right?)
 
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