Panda Bear

Habitat

• Prefer to live in cold, damp coniferous forests between 4000 and 11,000 feet high in elevation.
• Require dense bamboo stands for food and cover.

Distribution

• Today pandas exist in only six small areas along the eastern rim of the Tibetan plateau.
• Most of the bears that remain in the wild live in a chain of fourteen reserves which were established by the Chinese government.
• Today, it is estimated that only 700 pandas remain in the wild.
• There are another 200 of the bears in zoos (mostly in China).

Physical Characteristics

Color

• Pandas are the most distinctively marked of all bears. Their basic coloring is white with black ears, eye patches, legs, feet, chest, and shoulders
• In the wild their coloring can look more red or brown than black.
• Pandas have a short tail which is sometimes black.
• Their fur is thick with coarse outer hairs and dense woolly under-fur.

Size

• Adult pandas are between 51/2 and 6 feet (168-182 cm) long.
• They may weigh over 200 pounds (90 kg).

Features

• Pandas look a lot like other bears in terms of general shape and body structure.
• Because they chew tough bamboo stalks for nourishment, they have highly developed muscles around their jaw and large crushing molars. This makes their heads very round in appearance.
• Panda forepaws are very flexible and have an enlarged wrist bone that acts as a unique ‘sixth digit,’ which works sort of like a human thumb.
• Pandas do not have heel pads on their hind feet like other bears, but they can still move around the dense forest silently and easily.
• Pandas also have an extremely thick esophagus so that they can swallow the large splinters of bamboo.

Diet

• They have a very specific diet consisting almost entirely of leaves, stems, and shoots of various bamboo species.
• They spend between 10 and 12 hours eating bamboo every day.
• An adult can consume between 26 and 33 pounds (11-14 kg) per day.
• Although they are too slow to catch most animals, they have been known to eat meat when the opportunity arises.

Behavior

Daily Activity

• Individual pandas may share the same ranges, but they try to avoid each other and spend most of their time alone.
• When they are not eating they are usually resting.
• Most active during dawn and in the early evening.

Hibernation

• On a diet of bamboo, it is impossible for panda bears to accumulate enough fat to sleep through the winter.
• Instead of hibernating in higher, cooler climates the bears go down to lower elevations with warmer weather.

Reproduction

• Pandas reproduce very slowly and infant mortality is high.
• Females cannot reproduce until they are about 5 – 7 years old.
• Pandas mate in the spring and the mother usually gives birth to two cubs in the early fall, but often she abandons one and lets it die.
• Newborn pandas are tiny, only about a quarter of a pound.
• Cubs usually stay with their mothers until they are a year and a half old.

People and Panda Bears

• The giant panda is considered to be China’s national treasure and has become a symbol of conservation.
• Unfortunately, it has also become an endangered species and is severely threatened due to habitat loss and poaching.
• The people of China have been cutting down bamboo forests for houses and farming.
• When bamboo becomes scarce, pandas have nowhere to go for a new supply and their habitat becomes too small for them to survive.
• In order to save the giant panda, millions of dollars are needed to establish wildlife reserves, relocate people currently living within the reserves, educate the public about wildlife conservation, stop poachers, and plant bamboo.
• Fortunately, a lot of people around the world like pandas and are concerned about their future. Educating people world-wide about the giant panda’s possible extinction has begun to pay off and many realize that one of their favorite zoo animals may not be here for their grandchildren to enjoy unless they do something.