Giant Panda Info

Giant Panda Bear Anatomy and Appearance

The Giant Panda is a medium to large sized bear that like other species has a large head, short tail and a long muzzle with a large nose, which gives them an excellent sense of smell. The thick fur of the Giant Panda is creamy-white in colour with large patches of black on the limbs, shoulders, ears and nose, and distinctive black patches around their small eyes. The Giant Panda eats almost only bamboo and so has a number of physical adaptations to help with its consumption including an extension of their wrist bone which acts a bit like a thumb, allowing the Giant Panda to grip onto bamboo stems. They also have large jaws with strong jaw muscles that along with their flat molars, allow the Giant Panda to crush bamboo stems and leaves in order to extract the nutrients.

Giant Panda Bear Behaviour and Lifestyle

The Giant Panda is a solitary animal that occupies a territory marked with secretions from scent glands and scratch marks on trees. Male Giant Pandas roam home ranges more than double the size of a female's, with his territory overlapping those of several female Giant Pandas with which he holds breeding rights. As bamboo is not particularly nutritious, the Giant Panda must eat lots of bamboo every day and can consume up to 30kg of bamboo leaves, shoots and stems which is roughly 40% of it's body weight. Giant Pandas therefore dedicate between 12 and 15 hours a day to munching bamboo which they do by sitting down, allowing their front paws to grip onto the plants. Even though the Giant Panda appears to spend it's whole day either eating or sleeping, they are also known to be good at climbing trees and can even swim well when needed.

Giant Panda Bear Predators and Threats

Due to the large size and unique habitat of the Giant Panda, adults have no natural predators within their cool, bamboo-filled world. Cubs however are completely helpless until they are at least a year old and are preyed upon by larger predators such...