Panda habitat is continuing to disappear as settlers push higher up the mountain slopes. These temperate forests are one of the most biologically rich temperate areas on earth and one of WWF's priority ecoregions within the Global 200. The panda roams around in a well-defined home range of between 3.9 and 12 km2. Though it was once believed that pandas lived a relatively solitary existence, new research from Shaanxi Province's Qinling Mountains now presents a different scenario. Far from living alone, it claims that pandas in Qinling live and travel in groups of at least two, and sometimes in groups of up to 28.
Giant pandas are biologically unique.
Not designed to process plant matter, the panda's digestive system cannot easily break down the cellulose in bamboo, so pandas must eat huge amounts - as much as 83 lbs., and for up to 14 hours, each day. This means the panda's survival is inextricably linked to constant access to good feeding areas. Availability of bamboo is affected by two factors, one natural and one man-made. Bamboo flowers at regular intervals from ten to more than one hundred years depending on the species. After flowering it dies back and new seedlings emerge.