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High in dense bamboo forests in the misty, rainy mountains of southwestern China lives one of the world's rarest mammals: the giant panda, also called the panda. Only about 1,500 of these...
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- Name
- Description
- Habitat
- Diet
- Behavior
- Reproduction and Lifespan
- Predators
- Western Discovery
- Panda Diplomacy
- Zoos
The word panda was borrowed into English from French. No conclusive explanation of the origin of the French word panda has been found. The closest candidate is the Nepali word ponya,possibly referring to the wrist bone of the red panda, which is native to Nepal. The Western world originally applied this name to the red panda.
Adults measure around 1.2 to 1.9 metres (3 feet 11 inches to 6 feet 3 inches) long, including a tail of about 10–15 cm (4–6 in), and 60 to 90 cm (24 to 35 in) tall at the shoulder. Males can weigh up to 160 kg (350 lb). Females (generally 10–20% smaller than males) can weigh as little as 70 kg (150 lb), but can also weigh up to 125 kg (276 lb). The...
The giant panda lives in a few mountain ranges in central China, mainly in Sichuan, and also in neighbouring Shaanxi and Gansu.
Though it belongs to the order Carnivora, the giant panda is a folivore. Bamboo shoots and leaves make up more than 99% of its diet. During the shoot season, which lasts from April to August, they put on a lot of weight, which allows them to get through the nutrient-scarce period from late August to April, when they feed mostly on bamboo leaves. Tw...
As long as giant pandas spend most of the lives eating, they do not have much time for social interaction. The only exception is the breeding season. However, after mating, the male leaves the female alone to raise the cub. Pandas communicate through vocalisation and scent marking. They are able to climb and take shelter in hollow trees or rock cre...
Pandsa normally give birth to one cub every two years. The gestation period is somewhere between 95 and 160 days. The primary method of breeding giant pandas in captivity is by artificial insemination, as they seemed to lose their interest in matingonce they were captured. Giant pandas give birth to twins in about half of pregnancies. If twins are ...
Although adult giant pandas have few natural predators other than humans, young cubs can be attacked by snow leopards, yellow-throated martens, eagles, feral dogs, and the Asian black bear. Sub-adults weighing up to 50 kg (110 lb) may be hunted for by leopards.
The West first learned of the giant panda on 11 March 1869, when the French missionary Armand Davidreceived a skin from a hunter.The first Westerner known to have seen a living giant panda is the German zoologist Hugo Weigold, who purchased a cub in 1916.Kermit and Theodore Roosevelt, Jr., became the first Westerners to shoot a panda, on an expedition funded by the Field Museum of Natural Historyin the 1920s.In 1936, Ruth Harkness became the first Westerner to bring back a live giant panda, a cub named Su Lin who went to live at the Brookfield Zooin Chicago.In the 1970s, gifts of giant pandas to American and Japanese zoos formed an important part of the diplomacy of the People's Republic of China (PRC), as it marked some of the first cultural exchanges between China and the West. This practice has been termed "panda diplomacy". By 1984, however, pandas were no longer given as gifts. Instead, China beg...
Pandas have been kept in zoos as early as the Western Han Dynasty in China, where the writer Sima Xiangru noted that the panda was the most treasured animal in the emperor's garden of exotic animals in the capital Chang'an (present Xi'an). Not until the 1950s were pandas again recorded to have been exhibited in China's zoos.
Giant pandas live in forests of central China. An ideal habitat for a giant panda includes two types of bamboo and a forest that provides good places for dens. They live at high elevations, between 4,000 and 11,500 feet (1,200 and 3,500 meters).
- Giant pandas (often referred to as simply “pandas”) are black and white bears. In the wild, they are found in thick bamboo forests, high up in the mountains of central China – you can check out our cool facts about China, here!
- These magnificent mammals are omnivores. But whilst pandas will occasionally eat small animals and fish, bamboo counts for 99 percent of their diet.
- Pandas are BIG eaters – every day they fill their tummies for up to 12 hours, shifting up to 12 kilograms of bamboo!
- The giant panda’s scientific name is Ailuropoda melanoleuca, which means “black and white cat-foot”.
Oct 13, 2017 · Giant pandas' habitat in the wild today is limited to the mountains of China, but their appetite remains unlimited. They spend nearly every waking moment eating bamboo. Learn about giant...
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- Nat Geo WILD
Fun Facts for Kids. Giant pandas can see clearly at night, having the same sorts of pupils as cats. Giant pandas move extremely slowly and can't do anything that takes much energy because bamboo doesn't give them much energy. The first panda cub arrived in the United States in 1936, for a zoo in Chicago.
Giant pandas are found in bamboo forests in the mountains of central China. Bamboo is a tall, fast-growing grass that is the main food of giant pandas. The giant panda is also commonly called panda bear. Its scientific name is Ailuropoda melanoleuca.
