China has proposed a plan to save the wild Giant Pandas. They’re planning on building a national park three times bigger than the Yellowstone National Park in the U.S.A. – do we sense a Trump tweet coming soon? The park will span across the provinces of Sichuan, Shaanxi and Gansu.
The park will be 10,476 sq miles (that’s 27,134 sq km for our Canadian neighbours) and will link up 67 existing panda reserves. The reserves are currently on mountain ranges that have been isolated. The country’s hope is that the park will help the pandas mingle, kind of like an adorable singles mixer, and thus allow variety into the gene pool increasing baby panda survival rates.
Wonderful news for the panda populations living in these areas, China is hoping to expand their existing population of 1800 to 2000 by 2025 with this proposed park. It’s not quite so exciting for the 170,000 people living in Sichuan who will be relocated. We suppose China asked itself, pandas or people? and went with the more cuddly option.
It’s pretty clear they need our help…