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 almost 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 forced 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 approximately the size of an American black bear, standing at about 3 feet (91 cm) tall at the shoulder when on all four legs. They measure around 7 feet (210 cm) in length. In the wild, males can weigh up to 251 pounds (114 kg), while females typically weigh less, generally staying below 220 pounds (100 kg).

## 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 mountains. Melting snow high in the mountains runs into these streams and rivers.

## Kinds of giant pandas

There are two subspecies 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. They may be able to have babies until about age 20. Female pandas are ready to have a baby only once a year 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 their "pseudo-thumbs"

There has been discovery that giant pandas have "pseudo-thumbs" which is their modified wrist bone that acts like a thumb, allowing them to grip the bamboo quicker and easier.

## 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 or 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

13 cities outside China currently have zoos with giant pandas.

#### North America

- Mexico City, Mexico
- Toronto, Ontario, Canada

In addition, the National Zoo in Washington, D.C., United States, the San Diego Zoo in San Diego, California, United States, the Memphis Zoo in Memphis, Tennessee, United States and the Zoo Atlanta in Atlanta, Georgia, 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
- Singapore Zoo
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

## Other websites

Wang, D. , Gao, Z. , Bottazzi, J. , Shao, Q. , Li, Y. , Wu, K. , … Jiangzuo, Q. (2021). Significance of the preservation of ‘pseudo-thumb’ in fossil skeletons of giant panda (_ailuropoda melanoleuca_) in Shuanghe Cave, Guizhou Province, southern China. _Historical Biology_, _34_ (11), 2188–2194.
- Pandas International
- Wolong Panda Club