| Class | Order | Family | Genus | Species | ||||
| Mammalia | Carnivora | Ailuropodidae | Ailuropoda | Melanoleuca |
Endangered - due to expanding human population which has fragmented the habitat on which it is dependent for its specialised diet.
China
The giant panda is a large sturdy bear-like mammal with a very thick woolly black and white coat. The ears, eye patches, legs and shoulders are black and the rest of the body is white. The nose is black. The forepaws have an extended pad on the sole and on the first digit to assist in climbing and grasping bamboo. Although it has a body like a carnivore, closely related to the bear family, its specialised mainly vegetarian diet has resulted in a relatively massive head. The skull has to support larger broader teeth and larger stronger chewing muscles, than those found in the carnivorous bears, for chewing bamboo.
Head and Body Length 1200mm to 1500mm
Shoulder Height 700mm to 800mm
Tail Length 100mm to 150mm
Weight 75kg to 160kg
Inhabits mountain forests with dense stands of bamboo, at between 2700 and 3900 metres, but descending as low as 800 metres in winter. They shelter in hollow trees, rock crevasses and caves but have no permanent dens. They live mostly on the ground but are good tree climbers.
The diet consists mainly of the shoots and roots of bamboo although they sometimes eat other plants such as horsetails and pine bark. They also occasionally eat carcasses and catch small animals. Because the stomach and intestines of the giant panda are those of a carnivore it cannot digest wood fibre. It therefore has to eat an enormous quantity of bamboo everyday (up to 40kg) in order to survive. Where habitat is fragmented, the pandas may die of starvation when the bamboo flowers and dies and they are unable to migrate to other suitable areas.
The giant panda is mostly shy and nocturnal. It does not hibernate because bamboo is available throughout the year. In the winter it descends to lower altitudes to avoid the extreme cold. Giant pandas are solitary, with individual home ranges of about 2.5 square kilometres, but they share the surrounding areas with other individuals. During the mating season they may expand the sizes of their ranges. They mark their trails with scent from an anal gland.
The mating season is from March to May. Each female comes into mating condition (oestrus) for about 10 days during this time. Males vocalise to attract females and several males may gather near a female in oestrus and fight for the right to mate with her. The male and female stay together for mating over 1 to 3 days before resuming their solitary lives. The gestation period is from 97 to 165 days with births occurring in August and September. There is a delayed implantation period, as in bears, and embryogenesis is only 45 to 60 days. Before giving birth, females build simple nests of twigs in trees or rock clefts. One or two cubs (occasionally three) are born, but normally only the first-born is raised and the second is neglected. The cub is very small at birth (75-100g), blind, pink and almost hairless. The eyes open at 45 days and it develops quickly, weighing 10kg at 5 months, when it begins to eat bamboo. It is independent at 18 months and the mother then mates again. Infant mortality is high and females produce a maximum of one surviving cub every 3 years.
Giant pandas are generally silent animals, but do have 11 different calls, four of which occur only in the mating season.
The only predators of adult pandas are humans, but young pandas are sometimes taken by leopards.
Up to 30 years in captivity, probably less in the wild.
There are not many giant pandas in Zoos around the world and they do not generally breed in zoos outside of China, because so little is known of the breeding conditions needed.
There are less than 1000 left in the wild in China, and most of these are in 3 isolated areas of bamboo forest.
visit - Wikipedia
visit - WWF | PANDA
visit - BBC Science and Nature
visit - San Diego Zoo Live Camera
visit - The Giant Pandas