Slumping Bamboo Growth Could Seriously Affect Chinese Pandas

Troubling forecasts of bamboo growth in China are worrying panda enthusiasts. Because of its slow reproductive rate, bamboo only flowers every thirty to thirty-five years. That makes it uniquely terrible at adapting to temperature alterations, and since its habitat in the northwestern Quinling Mountains is expected to warm as much as three to eight degrees over the next century, researchers are predicting the three largest bamboo species in the region may all but vanish.