The Giant Panda
Pandas live on mountain slopes 4000-11000 feet above sea level in Sichuan, Shaaxi, and Gansu Provinces in Central China. They have the lowest territorial area of all bears, this area only spans 1.5 miles. Instead of hibernating they move down slope to shelter themselves from the winds on the high grounds.
The Giant Panda and The Red Panda are the only bears that are bound by their diet. These bears live on the slopes of the Chinese mountains 4000-11000 feet above sea level. This is the only place in the world that these bears can find food. And because their food holds little nutrition value they find it hard to gain the weight they need to hibernate during the harsh winter months. While other bears in this region eat other things, they will be fast asleep while the Panda will be brazing the snowy blizzards to eat the bamboo shoots that keep them bound to these mountains. The tempreature on these slopes during the winter season could drop below freezing, making it hard for their young to survive. The young Pandas in the wild only have a 10% chance of survival during these harsh months.
Pandas only give birth to a single cub, Panda’s take great care of their young because of the high death rate, the mother will hold the infant in her arms for three months continuously licking it and cleaning it to prevent infections. The young Panda will drink its mothers milk for up to 12 months, it is hard for the mother panda to produce milk on a diet of bamboo. After three months of sitting with the infant in her arms the cubs eyes will open, the mother will leave the cave to feed. The female panda will not stray too far from the cave to ensure the infants safety. When she returns she will sit for another three months leaving every now and again for food. When the cub gets old enough it will start to venture outside of the cave, this is when the female starts her schooling of her infant.
Habitat of the Panda
Pandas live on the mountain slopes 4000-11000 feet above sea level in Sichuan, Shaaxi, and Gansu Provinces in Central China. They have the lowest territorial area of all bears, this area only spans 1.5 miles. Instead of hibernating they move down slope to shelter themselves from the winds on the high grounds. Pandas do not have a permanent den that they call home instead they take refuge in trees, or small caves carved into the side of the mountain. There are only 1000 Pandas left in the wild today and they are in constant battle with humans to protect their habitat and prevent them from losing it forever due to land expansion.
Pandas live up at this height because their food grows up in bamboo forests on the freezing slopes. Other bears an animals have the privilege of leaving these areas in the winter months, the Panda is doomed to stay because of its single food source. The only thing that pandas will eat is the bamboo shoots, and leaves. And with this food source providing very little nutrition they are bound to stay on these lonely hills.
The Description of the Panda
All Giant Pandas are black and white in colour, but no two pandas have the same markings this gives them an identity and enables other pandas to tell each other apart. They have big heads with rounded ears and a short snout, they also have a short little stumpy tail. Their claws can retract like a cats claw would when they are not using it, these claws are used for climbing as modeled by these three monkeys above. They also have a thumb which allows them to grab branches and hold bamboo shoots in their hands as you or I would. This thumb gives the bears a great set of skills that puts other bears to shame, other bears have a flat paw like a cat or dog but the Panda has a thumb that aids it in feeding and climbing amongst other abilities. They communicate with scents and vocalizations, these vocals can range from a growl to a chirp, they also use body language during the mating seasons.
They grow to be three or four feet on all four legs and can be over six to seven feet standing tall. Males are larger than the females weighing up to 250 pounds in the wild, the females range from a weight of 200-220 pounds. Pandas are classed as an endangered species and have been placed under constant watch from the World Conservation Union. Low birth survival and land expansion have put these bears on this list of critically endangered animals.
Reproduction of the Panda Dear
Panda Bears reach sexual maturity at the age of four years of age, they ovulate only once a year in the spring time when the weather gets warmer. They only have 2-4 days to conceive, if they miss this opportunity they must wait until the following year, with numbers so low in the wild many miss this window. When conceived they carry the cub for up to four months in their womb. They usually give birth to one but they can have two but this is very rare.
Only one of the two will survive because the mother will only be able to keep one cub in milk because of their bamboo diet. The hard thing for the mother is to pick which one will survive knowing that she will be sentencing the other cub to death. The cubs mother will sit with her cub for up to three months until the cubs eyes open. Then its out into the cold to feed to keep up her milk production for her cub to last through the winter. The mother will hold the cub in her arms for up to six months to keep it warm and constantly cleaning it to prevent infection.
Diet of the Panda Bear
Although the Pandas diet is made up of 99% Bamboo it also eats other foods such as grasses, small rodents, musk deer fawns, sugar cane, apples, carrots and sweet potatoes. Most of these foods are fed to the bears in captivity in the wild they may only have the bamboo and rodents and the grasses to feed on. They eat sitting up and holding the food to their mouths instead of bringing their heads down to the food. They get most of their water from the fresh bamboo they eat, when drinking water the lick it off the grasses and bamboo.
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36 Responses to “The Giant Panda”
On April 6, 2009 at 6:47 am
Great info on Giant Panda. I do read in some magazine that their populations is reducing rapidly. That is a sad fact. Hope this species does not become extinct.
On April 6, 2009 at 7:20 am
I like it!
On April 6, 2009 at 9:04 am
thumbed up
On April 6, 2009 at 9:04 pm
great article and nice photos. Keep on sharing friend.
On April 6, 2009 at 11:30 pm
it was a lovely article
On April 6, 2009 at 11:32 pm
They are amazing… Thank you.
On April 6, 2009 at 11:48 pm
great article and nice photos. Keep on sharing friend.
On April 7, 2009 at 3:12 am
your work’s getting more polished, bro. I like it.
On April 7, 2009 at 10:19 am
Good article, lovely pics.
On April 7, 2009 at 2:29 pm
They are so cute!! Great story Stephen!!
On April 7, 2009 at 9:43 pm
Just a note..Red Pandas are not bears. Not in the slightest
On April 8, 2009 at 6:52 pm
They seem to live a hard life.The chances of giving birth are really low
How sad. They are so cute , I wish I could hug one , one day.
On April 8, 2009 at 7:20 pm
I love the pandas
On April 8, 2009 at 7:48 pm
Interesting article, I didn’t know most of that information.
On April 8, 2009 at 9:38 pm
Very informative and detailed. Looks like somebody did they homework. Pictures and heading 5/5. Information 10/5. Nice work!
On April 8, 2009 at 10:02 pm
i absolutely loved this,i knew all this already but there was a few facts i didnt know,pandas are my favorite animal =]
5 stars!
On April 8, 2009 at 10:26 pm
Realy interesting, I didn’t know they could only breed in a two day pierod
On April 8, 2009 at 11:19 pm
impressive write-up about one of the most popular and expensive animal in the world, nice work
On April 9, 2009 at 1:13 am
such a cute panda… huggable!
On April 9, 2009 at 2:23 am
The panda are really cute. If people become panda, discrimination and prejudice between the black and the white will totally vanish forever. We have to turn everyone in to panda.
More seriously, actually there is another species of bear whose life was bounded by their diet, the Koala Bears of Australia.
On April 9, 2009 at 3:05 am
Good work and cute pics. Just hope this species does not become extinct.
On April 9, 2009 at 4:35 am
Thanks for sharing this info, I hope they don’t become extinct, lovely photos, very well written.
On April 9, 2009 at 5:34 am
Great article!
On April 9, 2009 at 8:50 am
Good, informative, well written, concise. All of the things it needed to be. Good work.
On April 9, 2009 at 10:11 am
Wow. I feel like I just left a class on Panda Bears. Well done. Very enjoyable and educational.
On April 9, 2009 at 5:56 pm
I though that this was a great article, well presented and really informative.
On reading it i learned so many facts that i never knew and enjoyed the read as Pandas are my favourite bear, the pics were great too……well done mate top marks from me
On April 9, 2009 at 11:57 pm
Great pictures! Very informative, and well organized-THis includes so much information for panda lovers they would be in heaven.
On April 10, 2009 at 9:26 pm
Very good! well researched and presented…
Amsky
On April 10, 2009 at 10:27 pm
i always like your articles specially about animals..!=)
(got no time on triond nowadays, been busy lately..)
On April 13, 2009 at 3:19 am
Cute pandas and interesting article
On April 13, 2009 at 6:41 pm
Your article is very well written. The pictures are picture perfect. Keep up the good work.
On April 13, 2009 at 10:46 pm
Hi Stephen,
You really are a great writer. I think you should insert, “Image Source,” or “Image Credit,” under the pictures. I am perplexed as to how you get published without crediting the images.
Very nice write. Good luck,
j
On April 18, 2009 at 3:24 pm
Very educating, thank you.
On April 20, 2009 at 5:12 pm
those picture are cute!
On May 10, 2009 at 1:46 pm
What interesting facts and beautiful pictures. I love learning about the animal world.
Karen
On June 14, 2009 at 9:49 pm
Wow very informative, sorry that i did not answer, i didn’t go on Triond for a while
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