Abstract:Habitat assessment is a study to determine the scope and characteristics of a habitat through the analysis of requirements of a species and suitability for the local environment, which provide an important base for the protection of rare and endangered animals. In this study we used the drop data of Giant Panda (Ailuropoda melanoleuca) collected in Gansu during the Fourth Survey of Second-class Inventory as the indicator of habitat used and the Inventory data of Forest Resource in Gansu as the habitat availability to evaluate the habitat suitability in Gansu Province. We selected bamboo distribution, vegetation type, altitude, slope, aspect, roads and residential locations as criteria and indicators to establish the evaluating system. Through our systematic research result, we also produced a habitat quality map of Giant Panda in Gansu province with Arcgis10.2. The overall habitat size in Gansu province was as large as 445 611 hm2 located in four separated locations named Baishuijiang Unit, Gannan Unit, Jianshan Unit, and Xiqinling Unit. The suitable and marginally suitable habitat in the four Units was account to 45.22% (201 505 hm2) and 24.55% (109 408 hm2), respectively. It indicated a good quality of the habitat in Gansu Province. Among the four habitat units, Baishuijiang Nature Reserve owned the largest suitable habitat, while Gannan ranked second. The best habitat located in Wenxian (Wen County), followed by Zhouqu. The most proportion (88.72%) ofsuitable habitat located in Nature Reserve and the Baishuijiang National Nature Reserve covered the largest suitable habitat among all the Nature Reserves, and the next was Chagangliang Provincial Nature Reserve.