They are mainly ground dwellers, using caves, hollow trees, or rock crevices for shelter, but they can climb trees as well. The giant panda feeds chiefly on bamboo shoots and roots, grasping the slender stems with the aid of a special thumblike structure on its front feet. Because they sometimes eat small animals, they are classed as carnivores. May. One or two cubs are born each year. They leave the mother at about six months of age and reach sexual maturity after six or seven years.
Giant pandas are popular zoo animals, but they are extremely difficult to breed.
In 1980 there were about 40 in captivity in China and about 13 in other countries. Su-Lin, first of the very few giant pandas to be exhibited in the West, reached the United States as an infant in 1936 and was a popular attraction at the Brookfield Zoo, near Chicago, Ill., until his death in 1938. D.C. The lesser panda is found in China, Myanmar, Sikkim, and Nepal in high mountain forests and bamboo thickets. Because of its unusual catlike appearance, it is sometimes called a bear cat, or cat bear. The long, soft coat hairs are rusty red to dark chestnut.