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4 to 5 feet. Weight: 300 pounds. 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 black-and-white bears survive in the wild. Pandas eat almost nothing but bamboo shoots and leaves.
- 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”.
The giant panda's distinct black-and-white markings have two functions: camouflage and communication. Most of the panda - its face, neck, belly, rump - is white to help it hide in snowy habitats. The arms and legs are black, helping it to hide in shade. Mother pandas keep contact with their cub ...
- 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.
Feb 11, 2015 · 10 Amazing Panda Facts For Kids. Pandas have dark skin patches and pink skin patches, which relate to the black and white areas of fur. Pandas have an extremely good sense of smell. The Chinese name for panda is ‘Da Xiong Mao’, which means “giant bear cat”. There are two subspecies of giant panda: the giant panda, and the brown and grey ...
Jul 27, 2018 · Learn about pandas with these panda facts for kids! This classroom learning video is perfect for school or home instruction. What is your favorite panda fact...
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Behavior. Giant pandas usually live alone. They spend most of their time on the ground, but they can also climb trees. They eat mostly bamboo. They spend about 12 hours a day eating 40 pounds (18 kilograms) or more of bamboo. They may also eat grasses, fruits, some insects, and even rodents. Giant pandas are very vocal bears.
