Primary activity
The mountain environment
In the news story you have read how plants and animals are being wiped out faster than they can evolve.
Your task is to look in more detail at one animal in one environment and try and discover what's happening there.
Your task is to do a project on giant pandas. Giant pandas have come to be a kind of symbol of animals in danger as they have been under threat of extinction for many years - that's why they became the logo of animal campaigning organisation WWF.
Giant pandas only live in the wild in one place in the whole world and that is high in the mountains of central China. They used to live in the lowlands areas as well but as people built more farms and cities they were forced up into the mountains.
You need to find out:
- Exactly where it is they live. Use online maps, globes or atlases to pinpoint their location
- What their environment is like (ie temperatures, plantlife etc)
- What pandas eat
- Why they are under threat
- How many there are left
- Can anything be done to save the panda?
If possible turn your project into a Powerpoint presentation, using photographs you found on the internet to illustrate what you've discovered.
What do you think about animals and plants becoming extinct? Let us know at Have your say or send longer articles to Be a reporter.
Pandas are possibly the most photographed rare animal on the planet... but they only live wild in one place
Picture: Guardian