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Giant Panda
(The following information was retrieved from National Geographic Kids (4/15)
Giant Panda (Ailuropoda Melanoleuca)
OVERVIEW
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 1,000 of these black-and-white relatives of bears survive in the wild. They are an endangered species.
Pandas eat almost nothing but bamboo shoots and leaves. Occasionally they eat other vegetation, fish, or small animals, but bamboo accounts for 99 percent of their diets. Pandas eat fast, they eat a lot, and they spend about 12 hours a day doing it. The reason: They digest only about a fifth of what they eat. Overall, bamboo is not very nutritious. To stay healthy, they have to eat a lot—up to 15 percent of their body weight in 12 hours—so they eat fast.
Pandas' molars are very broad and flat. The shape of these teeth helps the animals crush the bamboo shoots, leaves, and stems they eat. To get the bamboo to their mouths, they hold the stems with their front paws, which have enlarged wrist bones that act as thumbs for gripping. A panda should have at least two bamboo species where it lives, or it will starve.
Pandas are shy; they don't venture into areas where people live. This restricts pandas to very limited areas. They live to be about 20 years old on average in the wild.
Crucial Role in Forests
Pandas play a crucial role in the bamboo forests where they roam by spreading seeds and facilitating growth of vegetation. In the Yangtze Basin where pandas live, the forests are home to a stunning array of wildlife such as dwarf blue sheep, multicolored pheasants and other endangered species, including the golden monkey, takin and crested ibis.
The panda’s habitat is at the geographic and economic heart of China, home to millions of people. By making this area more sustainable, we are also helping to increase the quality of life of local populations. Pandas bring huge economic benefits to local communities through ecotourism.
Habitat Loss
China’s Yangtze Basin region, which holds the panda’s primary habitat, is the geographic and economic heart of this booming country. Roads and railroads are increasingly fragmenting the forest, which isolates panda populations and prevents mating.
Forest destruction also reduces pandas’ access to the bamboo they need to survive. The Chinese government has established more than 50 panda reserves, but only around 61% of the country’s panda population is protected by these reserves.
Hunting
Hunting remains an ever-present threat. Poaching the animals for their fur has declined due to strict laws and greater public awareness of the panda’s protected status. But hunters seeking other animals in panda habitats continue to kill pandas accidentally.
(The following information was retrieved from WorldWildlife.org (4/15)
(The following information was retrieved from LiveScience.com (4/15)
Giant pandas are loners. They dislike being around other pandas so much that they have a heightened sense of smell that lets them know when another panda is nearby so it can be avoided, according to the National Geographic. If another giant panda does get close, the two will end up swatting and growling at each other. Sometimes they will even bite each other.
On average, a giant panda's territory is about 1.9 square miles (5 square kilometers). To mark their territory, giant pandas secrete a waxy scent marker that they rub on their territory. Other giant pandas can tell the sex, age, reproductive condition, social status and more from the scent marker, according to the San Diego Zoo.
The only time that these pandas seek each other out is during mating season. Males will use their smelling ability to find a female when they are ready to mate.
Helping Pandas Survive
Steps are being taken to save the Giant Panda. There are 50 panda reserves in China that protect around 45 percent of the giant panda's habitat, according to the World Wildlife Fund.
Giant Panda Facts
Giant pandas have a special bone that extends from their wrists called a “pseudo-thumb,” according to the San Diego Zoo. They use the pseudo-thumb to hold and manipulate bamboo.
Giant pandas will climb 13,000 feet (3,962 m) up the mountains of their home area to feed on higher slopes in the summer, according to the National Geographic.
Giant pandas live in broadleaf and coniferous forests with a dense understory of bamboo, at elevations between 5,000 and 10,000 feet.
A Giant Panda baby is about the size of a stick of butter when it is born.
The Giant Panda is the logo for the World Wildlife Fund, an organization dedicated to protecting and conserving wildlife.
