Global warming is posing a new threat to beautiful pandas.
Giant pandas in China are already an endangered species because of low birth rates, habitat destruction, and poaching.
They are the rarest species of bear in the world, and now they are being threatened by yet another problem.
Global warming maybe affecting their food supply.
In the Qinling mountain region of China, which is home to about 17 percent of the panda population, the bears only consume three different bamboo species, and they have to eat anywhere from 26 to 84 pounds of bamboo every day to sustain themselves.
99 percent of the panda’s diet is bamboo, and they can grow to be over 300 hundred pounds.
Researchers from Michigan State University working with the Chinese Academy of Sciences say that the increasing temperatures caused by global warming are not conducive to a spread of the already slow bamboo growth.
According to estimates made by the researchers, the specific species of bamboo could be mostly gone within a century.
Co-author of the study, Jianguo Liu from Michigan State University told Discovery News: “I think there's still hope, if we take action now. If we wait, then we could be too late."