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RE: China pledges to create a national park that will be three times the size of Yellowstone – all to protect fragmented populations of giant pandas (Ailuropoda melanoleuca)
I am not a fan of zoos so much. But their role in understanding panda reproduction has been something to watch over the past decades. There were so many failures early on. These sorts of efforts work on some species. It's been nice to watch the California Condor come back, too. But I don't know how you bring that same approach to the North Atlantic Right Whale!
So much comes down to habitat and food supplies. Good on China for setting aside such a large area. It will be interesting to see how they manage people within the area! Good luck to the Pandas!
I see your point, @haphazard-hstead. While it might not seem nice to keep animals caged in a zoo, they do bring some needed services to nature conservation as well as science. Back when I took a course in conservation biology, we divided them into "pro-conservation zoos" which would use the money they earned to found conservation programs, and "for-profit zoos" which just did this to make money. I know which ones I prefer to visit, but I'm not sure if the general public really cares about the difference.
I agree. Generally national parks do allow for lots of visitors to visit at least certain parts of the park, but I'm not really sure what their plans for this park is.
There is still controversy for Yellowstone National Park about whether some of the native people should be allowed to use the park in traditional way. And there is more and more discussion about connecting the parks along the Rocky Mountain corridor, to have Yellowstone to Yukon park that would be huge, with so much wild, wild land. I'd love to see that in place, for sure!