Order Pandas are currently an extremely endangered species. It is estimated that only about 1,000 individuals remain alive in southwestern China. Although they resemble and are often called bears, they are actually a distinctly different mammal family are are more closely related to the racoon than to true bears.
Panda are difficult to keep in captivity because of their strict dietary requirements.
Although they have a digestive system suited for an meat eating animal, they shifted their diet to vegetation. Today they live almost entirely on the leaves and stems of bamboo. Because bamboo is relatively low in nutrients, pandas need to eat up to 35 pounds of bamboo a day. The panda's dietary problems are compounded by the life cycle of the bamboo plants they eat. These plants die after they flower and can take up to a year before starting to grow back and up to 20 years before a grove can once again support a panda population.