The giant panda bear is a favorite of children and animal lovers throughout the world. For many people, it also is symbolic of the sad situation for many other kinds of animals. Though so well known and loved, the panda is slowly dying out. At present, there are only about 1,230 wild pandas left in the world. They all live in China, in the forests of the Sichuan and Shaanxi provinces. Pandas used to be common in other areas. However, as the human population increased and the forests shrank, panda territory gradually disappeared. And so did the pandas. Now the Chinese government has created a number of “panda reserves" to protect the pandas. Within these reserves, human settlement and tree cutting will be limited.