PARIS, Nov 11: Their numbers already threatened by a slow breeding rate and rapid habitat loss, China’s endangered giant pandas now also risk losing their staple food, bamboo, to climate change, a report said on Sunday.

A study in China’s northwestern Qinling Mountains, home to around 270 pandas — about a fifth of the world’s wild population — predicts a “substantial” bamboo decline this century as the globe warms.

“The pandas may face a shortage of food unless they can find alternative food resources,” a team of researchers from the United States and China warn in the journal Nature Climate Change.

The international symbol of environmental conservation efforts, the giant panda is a picky eater.

Ninety-nine per cent of its diet consists of bamboo — devouring up to 38 kilograms per day. This means the iconic black-and-white bear’s survival is closely linked to a thriving bamboo habitat. —AFP