The giant panda, also(know) as panda bear or simply panda, is a bear nativesouth central China．In the past many years, the giant panda(drive) out of the lowland areas where it once lived as a result of farming, deforestation and other(develop). Wild population estimates vary：one estimate shows that there are about 1,590 individuals (live) in the wild, while a 2006 study estimated that this figure could be as high as 2,000 to 3,000．Some reports also show thatnumber of giant pandas in the wild is on the rise．
The West first learned of the giant panda on March11, 1869, the French missionary (传教士) Armand David received a panda skin from a hunter．In 1936, Ruth Harkness became the first Westerner (bring) a live giant panda named Su Lin to the Brookfield Zoo in Chicago．To protect the pandas, in 2012, Earthwatch Institute, a global nonprofit that teams volunteers with scientists to conduct important(science) research, launched a program called "On the Trail of Giant Panda"．This program, based in the Wolong National Nature Reserve, allows volunteers to work up close with pandas cared for in captivity (圈养),and help them(gradual) adapt to life in the wild．
