Helping Pandas

Giant pandas once roamed throughout the bamboo forests of China.

- Rachel Young

They spent almost all day eating, filling their round bellies with bamboo. There was enough land for wandering, and plenty to eat.

But as forests were cut down to make way for houses and roads, pandas had fewer places to live. Pandas eat only bamboo, and they eat a lot. Without big bamboo forests, pandas couldn’t find enough food. The number of wild pandas shrank. The roly-poly black-and-white bears were in danger of disappearing forever.

How could people help pandas? They began by saving old forests and planting new ones. They set up protected wild spaces called nature reserves, where no roads or houses could be built. Pandas and other animals were free to roam in peace.