A typical animal eats half the day—a full 12 out of every 24 hours—and relieves itself dozens of times a day. It takes 28 pounds of bamboo to satisfy a giant panda's daily dietary needs, and it hungrily plucks the stalks with elongated wrist bones that function rather like thumbs. Pandas will sometimes eat birds or rodents as well. Wild pandas live only in remote, mountainous regions in central China. These high bamboo forests are cool and wet—just as pandas like it.
They may climb as high as 13, feet to feed on higher slopes in the summer season. Pandas are often seen eating in a relaxed sitting posture, with their hind legs stretched out before them. They may appear sedentary, but they are skilled tree-climbers and efficient swimmers. Giant pandas are solitary. They have a highly developed sense of smell that males use to avoid each other and to find females for mating in the spring.
After a five-month pregnancy, females give birth to a cub or two, though they cannot care for both twins. The blind infants weigh only 5 ounces at birth and cannot crawl until they reach three months of age.
They are born white, and develop their much loved coloring later. Improved conservation efforts and better survey methods show an increase in the wild panda population. Hundreds more pandas live in breeding centers and zoos, where they are always among the most popular attractions.
Much of what we know about pandas comes from studying these zoo animals, because their wild cousins are so rare and elusive. All rights reserved. Giant Pandas A giant panda photographed at Zoo Atlanta in Georgia.
Torrential rains or dense mist throughout the year characterizes these forests, often shrouded in heavy clouds. Physical Description A giant panda is bear-like in shape. It has black fur on ears, eye patches, muzzle, legs, and shoulders. The rest of the animal's coat is white. Although scientists do not know why these unusual bears are black and white, some speculate that the bold coloring provides effective camouflage into their shade-dappled snowy and rocky surroundings.
The panda's thick, wooly coat keeps it warm in the cool forests of its habitat. Giant pandas have large molar teeth and strong jaw muscles for crushing tough bamboo. Many people find these chunky, lumbering animals to be cute, but giant pandas can be as dangerous as any other bear.
Size About the size of an American black bear, giant pandas stand between two and three feet tall at the shoulder on all four legs , and reach four to six feet long. Males are larger than females, weighing up to pounds in the wild. Females rarely reach pounds. Since habitat loss is the most serious threat to the panda, establishing new reserves and extending existing ones are crucial to its survival.
The Chinese government, in partnership with WWF, has also developed bamboo corridors to link isolated pockets of forest, allowing the pandas within them to move to new areas, find more food and meet more potential breeding mates. Helena St. Pandas live in around 20 isolated habitats red in Gansu, Sichuan and Shaanxi provinces, China. Minshan Mountains. The mountains form a natural barrier between the densely populated southern and eastern provinces of China and the great wilderness of the Tibetan Plateau, the highest and largest in the world.
Spreading through the provinces of Sichuan and Gansu, the Minshan mountains run along the north of the Great Sichuan plain and to the east of the Tibetan Plateau, and form part of one of the most important watersheds in China. They are also home to hundreds of giant pandas with PingWu county boasting the highest density of wild pandas in the world. But the Minshan mountains' magnificent forests are a critical habitat not only for giant pandas but also for a wealth of other species, including the dwarf blue sheep and beautiful multi-coloured pheasants.
Qinling Mountains. The mountains are part of China's most critical watershed, channeling rainwater into both of the country's great rivers, the Yangtze and the Yellow.
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