Chinese nature reserves focus so much on pandas that leopards suffer

By Adam Vaughan

Ben McRae / Alamy

China’s conservation efforts to save giant pandas have paid off for the bears but miserably failed the leopards and other carnivores that share their home. Researchers say the findings are a warning against attempting to preserve biodiversity by focusing on one iconic species.

Pandas officially edged away from extinction in 2016 in a sign of their rebound since reserves for the species were established in the 1960s.

However, over the same period in the pandas’ protected areas, leopards (Panthera pardus) have seen an 81 per cent loss in the area they occupy and snow leopards (Panthera uncia) a 38 per cent loss. Two other carnivores, wolves (Canis lupus) and dholes (Cuon alpinus), a wild dog, declined by 77 and 95 per cent respectively, rendering them possibly even functionally extinct. The carnivores play a critical role in their ecosystems.

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A Chinese and US team led by Sheng Li at Peking University arrived at the grim declines for the four species after comparing survey records from the 1950s to 1970s with modern camera trap records from 2008 to 2018. Interviews with experts and locals suggest most losses occurred in the 1990s, driven by logging and poaching of the animals and their prey. “I was not so surprised by the declines, but they are dramatic,” says Sheng, who notes the falls are consistent with global declines in large terrestrial mammals.

One possible explanation for the “broad retreat” of the four while pandas thrived is the bears need much less land – as little as a twentieth of the home range of the carnivores. Large carnivores are also likelier to fall foul of conflicts with humans.

“These findings warn against the heavy reliance on a single-species conservation policy for biodiversity conservation in the region,” Sheng and the team write.

Plans for establishing a ‘Giant Panda National Park’ in Sichuan and neighbouring provinces this year could offer some hope for leopards, wolves and dholes, as the scheme is meant to restore and protect ecosystems as a whole. Nonetheless, say Sheng and colleagues, any process of restoring the carnivores to their former glory would take decades to fulfil.

Journal reference: Nature Ecology & Evolution, DOI: 10.1038/s41559-020-1260-0