The giant panda is confined to south-central China. Currently, it occurs in portions of six isolated mountain ranges (Minshan, Qinling, Qionglai, Liangshan, Daxiangling, and Xiaoxiangling) in Gansu, Shaanxi and Sichuan Provinces (about 75% of the population inhabits Sichuan Province). The panda's total range encompasses approximately 30,000 sq km between 102–108.3° E longitude and 28.2–34.1° N latitude. This range highly overlaps that of the Asiatic black bear (Ursus thibetanus), although the ecological requirements of these species differ appreciably (Schaller et al. 1989).

Significant climatic changes combined with thousands of years of cultivation of lower and flatter habitats and hunting by humans caused the giant pandas’ range to shrink to a remnant at the rugged western fringe of a once more expansive area (Schaller et al. 1985). This species previously ranged throughout most of southern and eastern China, with fossils indicating presence as far south as northern Myanmar and northern Viet Nam and stretching north nearly to Beijing. Another related species, the pygmy giant panda (A. microta), now extinct, also once existed in this area. As recently as 1850, giant pandas existed in eastern Sichuan and Hubei and Hunan Provinces. By 1900, they occurred only in the Qinling Mountains and along the edge of the Tibetan plateau. Soon after 1900, the expansion of agriculture upstream along principal river valleys separated this distribution into separate regions in the six mountain ranges.