Bye bye Bao Bao

Yesterday was Bao Bao's last day at the zoo. She is the newest panda cub born at the National Zoo in Washington, D.C. Since the boy had day camp there yesterday, he came home with questions about pandas. He asked how many were left in the wild, and I told him I didn't know, but I knew there weren't many. He firmly believes that there are 12.

I decided to look it up and make it a fact for his doodle today. The problem is, there are only estimates of the population. We can't know for certain how many there are. This means that not everyone has the same number.

According to Wikipedia: As of December 2014, 49 giant pandas lived in captivity outside China, living in 18 zoos in 13 different countries. Wild population estimates vary; one estimate shows that there are about 1,590 individuals living in the wild,[11] while a 2006 study via DNA analysis estimated that this figure could be as high as 2,000 to 3,000.[13] Some reports also show that the number of giant pandas in the wild is on the rise.[14] In March 2015, Mongabay stated that the wild giant panda population had increased by 268, or 16.8%, to 1,864 individuals.