When I was younger, I went on holiday to China and one day, we got a tour guide to a bamboo forest. While I was exploring, I came across a baby panda with its mother. I stopped for a moment, looking in awe at this cute chubby baby panda. However, I got called away before I could take a closer look. Later that day while I was having lunch, I heard a gunshot coming from in the direction I’d seen the baby panda and its mother. Immediately, I rushed over to see a truly horrifying sight. The mother slumped over, a gaping bullet wound straight through the chest. The baby panda was embracing his mum for the last time, tears pouring down his muddy face. I looked distraught as I heard one last wail of desperation before an ear-splitting silence filled the forest. She was gone.

Since that day in the forest. I have been studying these harmless creatures. The more I found out, the more repulsed I felt. These poor animals are being killed for sport or by habitat destruction. Because of these things they are subjected to, The Giant Panda population has rapidly decreased to 1,864 left in the wild! The Panda’s scientific name is Ailuropoda Melanoleuca and its species brings a lot of benefits to china. Such as, the fact that it plants new bamboo shoots by defecating and this allows the forests to thrive for as long as they have. Also, they bring extensive amounts of money to the Chinese economy through ecotourism and they don’t even do this on purpose and yet it is worth so much.

Even though these creatures help us, we still destroy their homes, their families and their loved ones for nothing but our profit. The Giant Panda is classed as a carnivore but 99% of their diet consists of bamboo and us destroying the habitat they live in starts to take away that 99%. These Gentle Giants way on average 220-330 pounds which does require a lot of food to fill up. However, A successful breeding test has accumulated that has made the panda population go up; although, there still is a lot that needs to change in order to save them.

So don’t let more panda families be parted like the one I saw that day in the Chinese bamboo forest. Help them survive to give them another chance because if not us, then no one will and all forests will filled with ear-splitting silence.