Bill McShea of the Smithsonian Conservation Biology Institute said panda reserves had reduced poaching, human impacts and deforestation, conserving both forests and pandas’ neighbours.
“They are benefiting because the pandas have very specific habitat requirements [that] bring a lot of other animals along for the ride,” the wildlife ecologist said.
The hard cash that goes into China’s panda diplomacy
As evidence of habitat recovery, McShea pointed to animals like takins, golden snub-nosed monkeys, migratory geese and cranes that are readily observable in China’s Giant Panda National Park, which is home to another 8,000 animal and plant species.