Giant Panda

-Giant Panda-

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Zoology

Pandas are rare to begin with, there were never a lot of them. They have a limited diet which consists of 99% bamboo. Bamboo dies off approximately every twelve to seventeen years, which means you need more than one species of bamboo in a given area for a panda to survive the year of the bloom. Another reason the panda is endangered is because of hunting. A panda’s skin is worth a lot of money. Humans have set up traps for other animals and accidentally caught giant pandas instead. Pandas are also picky with mating.

About the size of an American black bear, giant pandas stand between two and three feet tall at the shoulder, and reach four to six feet long. Males are larger than the females. The males weigh up to 250 pounds in the wild. Females rarely reach to 220 pounds. The giant panda is listed as endangered in the World Conservation Union's red list of threatened species. There are about 1,600 giant pandas left in the wild. More than 300 giant pandas live in zoos and breeding centers around the world, mostly in China.

Giant pandas are found in Southwestern China, along the Tibetan Plateau. They can also be found in zoos in Japan, Hong Kong, Thailand, Taiwan, Mexico, France, Spain, Austria, Australia, and Ireland. The giant panda was once widespread in Southern and Eastern China, Vietnam and Myanmar. They do not hibernate. In the winter they seek shelter in hollow trees. The giant panda has lived for centuries in coniferous forests with dense undergrowth of bamboo at elevations of 5,000 to 11,000 feet. Rain or dense mist throughout the year shrouds these remote forests in heavy clouds. In the winter snow is common.

Giant pandas are important because they eat so much bamboo, there would never be an overgrowth.  This...