Cute Animal in Danger: Giant Panda

Photo by Flickr user Photocapy under Creative Commons

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With their distinctive coloring and large size, Giant Pandas have long been a favorite of zoo-goers. The giant furballs look as if they’d like nothing better than to chew some bamboo and watch a re-run of Mad Men with you on the couch. Maybe order a pizza, vegetarian-style. But contrary to their adorable appearance, giant pandas are actually quite ornery according to many keepers’ accounts. One Beijing Zoo panda named Gu Gu has attacked three visitors, one of which entered his cage specifically to hug him. In his most recent attack, the 240-lb Gu Gu “clamped down on the intruder’s leg and refused to let go… Zookeepers had to use tools to pry open the animal’s jaws.”

Fortunately for China, which rents out panda bears to various zoos for approximately $1 million a year, Americans and people around the world still love the panda. With their big dark eyes and baby-like body shape, pandas are easily anthromorphized and seem to breed well in captivity. In fact, 25 were born near Sichuan since the May 12 earthquake there.

While doubtlessly pandas will continue to prosper in captivity, their fate in the wild looks bleak. About 1,600 wild giant pandas continue to be endangered due to their restrictive diet, poaching, and encroachment on habitat by human development. A recent report by WWF says that the wild giant panda is facing extinction in just a few decades: as China’s economy continues to ramp up, it is fueling development and fracturing panda habitat to the point where inbreeding, stress, and disease risk makes the wild population unviable.

If there is good news to report about the giant panda, it’s only that many conservation groups are working to preserve its habitat in China. And that at $1 million a pop, it’s unlikely that the Chinese government will let them go extinct. For an example of their global appeal, gratuitously cute video below: 

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WE CAME UP SHORT.

We just wrapped up a shorter-than-normal, urgent-as-ever fundraising drive and we came up about $45,000 short of our $300,000 goal.

That means we're going to have upwards of $350,000, maybe more, to raise in online donations between now and June 30, when our fiscal year ends and we have to get to break-even. And even though there's zero cushion to miss the mark, we won't be all that in your face about our fundraising again until June.

So we urgently need this specific ask, what you're reading right now, to start bringing in more donations than it ever has. The reality, for these next few months and next few years, is that we have to start finding ways to grow our online supporter base in a big way—and we're optimistic we can keep making real headway by being real with you about this.

Because the bottom line: Corporations and powerful people with deep pockets will never sustain the type of journalism Mother Jones exists to do. The only investors who won’t let independent, investigative journalism down are the people who actually care about its future—you.

And we hope you might consider pitching in before moving on to whatever it is you're about to do next. We really need to see if we'll be able to raise more with this real estate on a daily basis than we have been, so we're hoping to see a promising start.

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