China's new panda park will be three times bigger than Yellowstone.

[Cattledog]

The proposed Giant Panda National Park—whose final plan will likely be finalized in fall 2019—spans 10,476 square miles, nearly triple the area of Yellowstone.

Most of the land will be in Sichuan Province, home to more than 80 percent of wild pandas. The majority of it is not “new”—it brings together dozens of established panda reserves and other protected areas containing thousands of plant and animal species, many of them threatened or endangered.

The park is the latest bit of good news for the panda: The most recent census, released in 2015, estimated a total wild population of 1,864 bears (not including cubs), up from a low of around 1,200 in the 1980s.

Whether the higher number is due to better counting methods or true growth is unknown, but in 2016 the International Union for Conservation of Nature went so far as to downgrade the giant panda from “endangered” to “vulnerable.”

https://www.nationalgeographic.com/animals/2019/05/giant-pandas-national-park-china/?cmpid=org=ngp::mc=social::src=facebook::cmp=editorial::add=fb20190510animals-pandaparkchina::rid=&sf212495806=1&fbclid=IwAR1V22DpRfgDje2XW5hzYTQHYnaR91ZPp8Mv9mTKX3uFThvFLel3WiRXEFU

[mountain grammy]

1. Definitely going on my bucket list.