The panda’s most serious problems, however, and the ones most responsible for its near extinction, are poaching and deforestation of its natural habitat. Fossils from northern Myanmar (Burma), Vietnam, and much of China as far north as Beijing reveal that the giant panda existed throughout much of eastern Asia during the Pleistocene Epoch (1,800,000 to 10,000 years ago). In modern times, human destruction of its forest habitat has restricted the species to remote mountain areas in Sichuan, Shaanxi, and Gansu provinces in China. In addition, periodic mass flowering and die-offs of bamboo have caused starvation for some populations. (Bamboo forests require 5 to 10 years to recover from such events.)