Giant pandas are members of the bear family,
and resemble other bears in size and shape.
In contrast, the red panda, which lives in the same
habitat as the giant panda, is closely related to
and resembles the raccoon. The black-and-white
giant panda coat is recognizable to people all
over the world. Its legs, ears, eye patches, and
a band across the shoulders are black, while the
rest of the coat is white. Pandas have large jaws
and broad teeth, with an increased number of
cusps that help them chew tough bamboo stalks.
The wide jaw contributes to the large, round
shape of the panda's head. The black eye patches
create an illusion of very large eyes. These features,
along with short legs, give the panda a
cute, infantlike appearance to humans, which
contributes to their enormous popularity. Another
remarkable feature is the "thumb." Pandas
have the same five digits of other bears, plus
a sixth digit, an opposable thumb, which is actually
a modified wrist bone (sesamoid). The
thumb allows them to grasp bamboo with considerable
dexterity.
Diet and Reproduction
Giant pandas are the most nearly herbivorous of
the bears. Ninety-nine percent of their diet consists
of bamboo. They also eat other plants and
meat that they can scavenge, and will eat a variety
of foods in captivity. However, pandas live in areas
once covered by vast bamboo forests, and their
jaws, teeth, paws, and behavior are all adapted to
eating bamboo. Nonetheless, they have a short,
simple digestive tract similar to those of other
bears, a sign of their carnivorous ancestry, which
is not well-adapted to digesting the leaves and fiber
of bamboo. Accordingly, pandas can only digest
21 percent of the bamboo that they consume,
whereas ruminants such as cows digest up to
60 percent of the plant material that they eat.
Because of this inefficiency, pandas consume 12 to
15 percent of their body weight in bamboo each
day, and must spend twelve to fourteen hours
each day eating.
Pandas mate in the spring between March and
May, with cubs born in late summer. The total gestational
period varies from 87 to 165 days. Cubs
are born very small, between three and five ounces.
Combined with hormonal data, these characteristics
suggest that pandas have a delayed implantation.
That is, after fertilization, the embryo remains
free-floating in the uterus for several months before
attaching to the uterine wall. After attachment,
pregnancy is only about forty days, resulting
in small newborns. Delayed implantation also
occurs in some other bear species. Pandas have
between one and three cubs at a
time. However, they usually
raise only one cub, which the
mother nurtures intensively for
several months.
Status and Distribution
The giant panda is an endangered
species, with fewer than
1,500 individuals remaining.
Panda habitat once covered an
area of roughly 450,000 square
miles in southeastern China,
ranging from central China, to
Hong Kong, into Burma and
Vietnam. Today, they are found
within only a 5,400-square-mile
area. Even within this area, they
are separated into many subpopulations,
which prevents interbreeding.
Within their range, pandas live at elevations
above human settlements (four to eight
thousand feet) to the upper edges of bamboo forest(ten to eleven thousand feet).
The continuing
expansion of human farms and villages has forced
them from the lower elevations, which further
contributes to the fragmentation of their populations.
Small subpopulations are at a high risk for
inbreeding, which reduces the genetic variability
and individual fitness, placing panda survival in
doubt.
Because of the giant panda's endangered status
and charismatic traits, extensive efforts are being
made to prevent its extinction. It is considered a
national treasure in China, and killing one is punishable
by death. Western conservationists, including
the World Wildlife Fund, which uses the
panda as its symbol, are also aiding the preservation
efforts. Captive panda breeding, mostly in
China, has been a focus of these efforts. Unfortunately,
breeding programs have never produced
enough cubs to introduce into the wild, or even to
sustain the captive populations. Still, many scientists
and conservationists around the world are
working to ensure a future for the giant panda.
Classification:
Kingdom: Animalia
Subkingdom: Bilateria
Phylum: Chordata
Subphylum: Vertebrata
Class: Mammalia
Order: Carnivora
Family: Ursidae (bears)
Genus and species: Ailuropoda melanoleuca (giant
panda)
Geographical location: China
Habitat: Bamboo forests
Gestational period: Probably a three-month embryonic
diapause, followed by a forty-day
gestation
Life span: Twenty to twenty-five years; known
record, thirty years
Special anatomy: Coloration is white with black
splotches; opposable "thumb"
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