Qinling Panda(Ailuropoda melanoleuca qinlingensis)
It is a subspecies of the giant panda, it was discovered in the 1960s but was not recognised as a subspecies until 2005. Disregarding the nominate subspecies, it is the first giant panda subspecies to be recognized. It differs from the more familiar nominate subspecies by its smaller skull and dark brown and light brown (rather than black and white) fur, and its smaller overall size. Its eye spots are under the lower lid, instead of around the eyes. Brown pandas are very rare. These pandas have a survival rate of 5-20 years. Their coloration is thought to be the consequence of inbreeding.
Habitat
They are restricted to the Qinling Mountains, at elevations of 1,300–3,000 metres. Its colouration is a consequence of inbreeding: as the population is closed off from genetic variation and this might have led to the preservation of the mutation responsible.
Diet
In the wild they eat 99% bamboo. They eat as much as 18 kg of bamboo every day. It may also eat other grasses and prey on small rodents and musk deer fawns.
Breeding
They are polygamous, breeding between March and May. The female attracts a male through a series of bleats and groans. Gestation lasts about 5 months, then the female gives birth in a cave or base of a hollow tree to 1 or 2 cubs. Cubs are born blind and toothless, weighing only 90-130 grams, or about 1/800th of the mother's weight. Cubs will stay in a den until 6 months of age when they are able to trot alongside their mother. They are weaned at about a year old but stay with mother for another 6 months. Some cubs may not leave the mother for several years until she falls pregnant again. They become sexually mature between 4 and 8 years old.
Population
It is believed that they are classed as Endangered(EN). There are an estimated 1,800 Qinling pandas living in the wild.
Threats
The main threats towards this subspecies is habitat loss and human disturbance. Before human expansion confined Pandas to high elevations, Pandas had access to more species of bamboo adapted to different elevation zones. When one bamboo species experienced a die-off, Pandas could easily migrate up or down slope to access a different species that was not affected. Confined to its more limited elevation range today, Pandas are sometimes put at risk of starvation, especially when more than one bamboo species flowers at the same time.
Conservation
China joined the Convention on the International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES), which made trade of Panda skins illegal. Enactment of the 1988 Wildlife Protection Law banned poaching and conferred protected status to the Giant Panda (listed as Category I, the highest level of protection). The National Conservation Project for the Giant Panda and its Habitat of 1992 laid out a masterplan for Panda conservation and established a Panda reserve system, which today has grown to 67 reserves. Enlarged by more than 50% since the Third National Survey, this reserve system currently protects 67% of the Panda population and nearly 1.4 million hectares of Panda habitat. The biological diversity of these reserves is unparalleled in the temperate world and rivals that of tropical ecosystems, thus making the Panda an excellent example of an umbrella species conferring protection on many other sympatric species