Ask a QuestionThe giant panda (scientific name: Ailuropoda melanoleuca; Chinese: dà xióng māo) also known as panda bear or simply panda, is a kind of mammal which belongs to ursidae, carnivora. Giant pandas are a unique species in China and are hailed as a national treasure.
Giant pandas have fat body, round head and short tail. Their cute appearances attarct many toursits from home and abroad to see them. And giant pandas have many fans in the world. People of different ages all like them.
A giant panda's body is 1.2 to 1.8 meters, and the tail is 10 to 12 centimeters long and weighs 80 to 120 kilograms. It can even weigh up to 180 kilograms. Captive pandas are slightly heavier than wild ones, and males weigh slightly more than females.
The black and white fur on panda's head and body is good for it hiding in trees and snow and not easily detected by predators. They have relatively sharp claws and powerful forelimbs, which are good for giant pandas to climb tall trees. Giant pandas have very thick skin to protect them from cold. The average thickness of the skin is about 5 mm, and can reach to 10 mm.
According to the latest announcement from the National Forestry and Grassland Administration, till 2024, there are about 1,900 wild giant pandas in China. In addition to the wild population, the global captive population of giant pandas has now reached 728 individuals.
Giant pandas live in the bamboo forests at high altitude, mainly in Sichuan, Gansu and Shaanxi. The climate at these places are pleasant for giant pandas. And there are rich food resources for giant pandas. These places are ideal habitats for giant pandas.
The International Union for Conservation of Nature has adjusted the threatened status of giant pandas from "endangered" to "vulnerable", which indicates that the protection efforts for giant pandas in China have been recognized by the International Wildlife Conservation Community.
To strengthen the protection of giant pandas, China has conducted 4 nationwide surveys. To protect giant pandas, China protected natural forests, returned farmland to forests and grasslands, constructed nature reserves and protected the habitats of wildlife. And in 2021, China established Giant Panda National Park to protect approximately 70 percent of the wild giant panda population.
Giant pandas prefer to live alone and each giant panda has a separate area of activity. Apart from estrus, they often live alone. The area of the panda’s nest is about 3.9 to 6.4 km². The male’s nest area is slightly larger than the female’s. There is an overlap between the individual nests, but there is no overlap between the females.
Most wild pandas live in thick bamboo forests whose sea level is 2600-3500 meters, where the air is rarefied with cloud and mist curling up all the year round. Some other factors also affect the distribution and density of pandas in the wild: the distribution of bamboo, topography and water, whether there are hiding places and the nests for panda cubs and the mountain potential. However, human disturbance is the main factor affecting the distribution of giant pandas nowdays.
The giant panda has the character of not being afraid of cold and wet and never hibernate. Even the temperature is 4-14 ℃ below zero, they still cross bamboo groves covered by snow.
The life of giant pandas every day is mainly eating and sleeping. Generally speaking, giant pandas spend half a day to eat every day and half a day to relax. And there is a little time left for them to play.
A Day of Wild Giant Panda
0-2AM: rest
2-7AM: eating
7-10AM: rest
10-11AM: playing
11-12AM: eating
12AM-2PM: rest
2-9PM: eating
9-12PM: rest
Different giant pandas have different rabbits, the detailed time of their activities may be different.
Giant pandas’ appetite is huge. A giant panda eats 12-18 kilogram bamboos, or 10-14 kilogram bamboo leaves or 40 kilogram bamboo shoots. Giant pandas preserve the digestive tract of carnivorous animals. Bamboos, bamboo leaves and bamboo shoots contain low protein and fat. To get enough energy for the body, giant pandas need to spend at least 10 hours to eat. Except for eating and sleeping, giant pandas almost have no time for playing or doing other things. Spending about half a day to eat, giant pandas don’t care where to eat and how to eat. They sit, lie or lie on their sides to eat. It is not surprised to see that giant pandas eat with various gestures.
What do giant pandas eat? Pandas, like other bears, are omnivorous who are in the transition from carnivores to herbivores. Captive pandas’ main food is bamboo, radish and steamed corn bread while wild panda will also eat grass, wild fruit, insects, bamboo rat or even sheep. The average giant panda eats as much as 9 to 14 kg of bamboo shoots a day to compensate for the limited energy content of its diet.
Adult pandas have a very short period of heat. The female panda has only a few days of estrus in a year. After mating, the male and female pandas will separate, and the panda cub will be raised separately by the female.
The gestation period of panda is 83-200 days, and the baby is usually born around August. Their nest is usually a hidden tree hole, or a natural cave, with branches and hay prepared by the mother panda.
The giant panda often bears in a big tree hole of the fir tree and delivers one child at a birth, sometimes delivers two, but its body and appearance during pregnancy does not change significantly. The average birth weight of the panda cub is about 145g, and the body is pink, which is very different from the adult panda.
As pandas feed on bamboos, they need to eat for a long time to keep the heat supply. The mother pandas have to leave her cubs for 2-4 hours to feed themselves. In the 1990s, the researchers did not understand the panda's behavior, and when they saw the female panda away from their cubs, they concluded that the cubs were abandoned and want to adopt these "abandoned" cubs for artificial feeding. The long-term observations of wild panda breeding overthrew this idea. The real reason is that the mother panda had to eat enough bamboo to produce milk to feed their offspring.
The artificially bred panda is separated from the wild environment and has a low natural rate of estrus. They seemed to lose their interest in mating once they were captured, which makes it difficult for its artificial reproduction. Since the 1990s, the artificial breeding of giant pandas has been improved, and the artificial insemination has been adopted. In addition, under the condition of captive breeding, there were triplet births for baby pandas, but the survival rate is low.
A panda's one year old is equivalent to a man's 3-4 years old. The lifespan of wild pandas is typically 15 to 20 years while the captive pandas can reach the age of 30. The oldest panda in history is 38 years old. She was the female panda who lived in Hong Kong Ocean Park, Jia Jia, who died on October 16, 2016 at the age of 38.
As national treasure in China, giant pandas attract many foreign tourists to see them because of their cute appearance and characters. And there are some things you may not know about giant pandas.
Giant pandas have tails, and their tails are white.
Giant pandas can swim, and they are good at it.
Giant pandas are good at climbing the tree. And they like climbing the trees.
Almost 99% of giant pandas’ foods are bamboos.
Giant panda is the logo of the WWF(World Wildlife Fund for Nature).
The vision of giant pandas is underdeveloped. They live at the dark bamboo forests, causing their underdeveloped vision.
Giant pandas can not understand some Sichuan dialects, they are just familiar with the voices of their keepers.
Giant pandas have 5 fingers. And the sixth finger is strictly not finger, it is a thumb.
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