Giant panda

The giant panda, Ailuropoda melanoleuca, is a bear. It lives in south central China.

Although it belongs to the order Carnivora, the panda's diet is 99% bamboo. Pandas in the wild occasionally eat other grasses, wild tubers, or even meat in the form of birds, rodents or carrion. In captivity, they may get honey, eggs, fish, yams, shrub leaves, oranges, or bananas along with specially prepared food.

The giant panda lives in a few mountain ranges in central China, mainly in Sichuan province, but also in the Shaanxi and Gansu provinces.
As a result of farming, deforestation and other development, the panda has been driven out of the lowland areas where it once lived.

Appearance
Giant pandas are bears. They have black and white fur all around them. The black fur is on their ears, around their eyes, on their legs, and on their shoulders.

Giant pandas are about the size of an American black bear. They are about  tall at the shoulder when they are standing on all four legs. They are about  long. Males weigh up to  in the wild. Females usually weigh less than .

Living areas
Wild giant pandas have lived in the mountains of central China. They live in forests of tall trees. They eat the bamboo that grows under the trees. The weather is rainy and misty in the mountain forests. There are thick clouds almost all the time.

Food and water
Bamboo is the main diet of pandas. Ninety-nine percent of the food they eat is bamboo. They eat as much as  of bamboo every day. They spend 10 to 16 hours every day looking for food and eating it.

Bamboo is a grass. Sometimes giant pandas eat other grasses. They also eat little rodents or musk deer babies (fawns). In zoos, giant pandas eat bamboo, sugar cane, vegetables, and fruit.

Giant pandas get a lot of water from the bamboo they eat. They need more water though. They drink from the freshwater streams and rivers in the mountain. Melting snow high in the mountains runs into these streams and rivers.

Kinds of giant pandas 

There are two kinds of giant pandas. They both live in China. The best known is the black and white panda. Its scientific name is Ailuropoda melanoleuca melanoleuca.

The other giant panda has dark brown and light brown fur. Its skull is smaller than the other giant panda. It has larger molars. This panda lives only in the Qinling Mountains. Though often called the Qinling Panda, Its scientific name is Ailuropoda melanoleuca qinlingensis.

Baby pandas 
Giant pandas are ready to have babies (cubs) when they are between the ages of four and eight years. They may be able to have babies until about age 20. Female pandas are ready to have a baby only once a year. This is in the springtime. There are only two or three days during which a baby panda can form in the mother's belly. Calls and scents bring the males and female pandas to each other.

Female pandas may give birth to two young. Usually only one lives. Giant panda cubs may stay with their mothers for up to three years. Then they leave her for a life of their own.

Giant pandas and people
Today, the giant panda is a symbol for China. It is protected by the Chinese government. Killing a giant panda is a crime. The giant panda may become extinct. It will die out if the forests of bamboo continue to disappear.

People outside of eastern Asia did not know about the giant panda until 1869. The first "Westerner" to see a live panda was a German zoologist in 1916. In 1936, Ruth Harkness became the first Westerner to bring a live giant panda out of China. It was a cub (baby panda) named Su-Lin. The cub was taken to live at the Brookfield Zoo in Chicago.

In the 1970s, China began showing giant pandas in zoos in the United States and Japan as a type of diplomacy. This happened until 1984, when China changed how this was done. Starting in 1984, China would allow zoos to keep the giant pandas for 10 years, but the zoo would have to pay China up to $1,000,000 each year. Also, the zoo would have to agree that any cubs born would belong to China.

Zoos

15 cities outside China currently have zoos with giant pandas.
North America
 Washington, D.C., United States
 Atlanta, Georgia, United States
 Mexico City, Mexico
 Toronto, Ontario, Canada

In addition, the San Diego Zoo in San Diego, California, United States and the Memphis Zoo in Memphis, Tennessee, United States once hosted giant pandas, but their pandas have since been returned to China.

Europe
 Copenhagen, Denmark
 Berlin, Germany
 Vienna, Austria
 Madrid, Spain
 Edinburgh, Scotland
 Rhenen, The Netherlands

Asia
 Chiang Mai, Thailand
 Tokyo, Japan
 Kobe, Hyōgo, Japan
 Shirahama, Wakayama, Japan 
 Seoul, South Korea 
The Adelaide Zoo in Adelaide, Australia received two giant pandas in 2009.

Endangered animal 

The giant panda is an endangered species. It may become extinct. In 2013, it was estimated that there were less than 2,500 mature giant pandas living in the wild. Illegal hunting is no longer a problem. Hunting for pandas is a crime. The penalties are harsh if you hunt pandas.

The greatest threat to survival is the loss of living areas. People are ruining the areas where pandas live. They are cutting down trees. They are building farms. Groups of pandas are forced to live in small areas. They are isolated. They cannot mix other panda groups.

Giant pandas eat bamboo. Sometimes the bamboo dies off. At one time, pandas could move to an area where bamboo was still growing. Moving has become more and more difficult. People are living and working in panda areas. Pandas cannot move about as freely as they once did.

Helping pandas to survive 
China set up the first giant panda nature reserve in 1963. Other nature reserves were also set up. There were 40 giant panda reserves in 2006.

Related pages 
 Red panda

References

Other websites

 Pandas International 
 Wolong Panda Club 

Bears
Gansu
Shaanxi
Sichuan
Mammals of Asia
National symbols of the People's Republic of China