Giant Panda Timeline By sethstark12 Mar 11, 1868 West first learned of Giant Panda 1936 Ruth Harkness became first Westerner to bring back a live giant panda cub. Period: 1936 to 1946 Fourteen Pandas were taken by foreigners from China. 1946 China banned the exploitation of pandas by foreigners 1970 Discovery that the Giant Panda is part of the bear family 1977 Chinese government discovered that approximately 2459 giant pandas exist in the wild 1988 Second survey revealed that only 1114 Pandas remained in the wild 2004 Third survey revealed that nearly 1600 giant pandas were in the wild. 2015 Fourth survey revealed over 1864 giant pandas living in the wild This survey showed an increase