Main Panda Info

PANDA INFO FROM THE INTERNET

(To be used when writing the script)

Habitat

• ·         Live in a few mountain ranges in central China

• ·         Once lived in lowland areas, but farming, forest clearing, and other development now restrict giant pandas to the mountains

• ·         Live in broadleaf and coniferous forests with a dense understory of bamboo

• ·         At elevations between 5,000 and 10,000 feet

• ·         Often shrouded in heavy clouds

• ·         Habitat is increasingly fragmented by roads and railroads (now lives next to a railway?)

• ·         Cold and wet – just as pandas like it

Characteristics

• ·         Black and white bear

• ·         Each panda’s markings are slightly different from one another

• ·         There is also a rare brown and white variation of the giant panda (panda finally gets a reply, it’s another male)

• ·         Body typical of bears

• ·         Black fur on ears, eye patches, muzzle, legs and shoulders

• ·         The rest of the animal’s coat is white

• ·         Thick, woolly coat keeps it warm in the cool forests of its habitat

• ·         Large molar teeth

• ·         Stand between two and three feet tall at the shoulder (on all four legs)

• ·         Reach four to six feet long (1.2 to 1.5m)

• ·         With a 6 inch (0.2m) tail

• ·         Weigh around 300lbs (136kg) (weighing scales = he’s overweight)

• ·         Skilled tree-climbers and efficient swimmers

• ·         Highly developed sense of smell

• ·         Born white and develop their much loved colouring later

• ·         Front paws are specially designed to allow them to hold bamboo stalks (5 fingers and a thumb?)

• ·         They appear to have thumbs but they are really extensions of the wrist bone

• ·         To hold a piece of bamboo, a panda wraps its fingers around one side of the stalk, then it holds it in place by pushing the wrist bone (or pseudo-thumb) forward

• ·         They don’t roar but they do bleat and honk, they sometimes huff, bark or growl, and young cubs croak and squeal

Status

• ·         Listed as endangered

• ·         1,600 left in the wild

• ·         More than 300 live in zoos and breeding centres around the world, mostly in China

• ·         WOLONG NATURE RESERVE

Life Span

• ·         Average is 20

• ·         Chinese scientists have reported zoo pandas as old as 35

• ·         28 in 1999

Diet & Feeding Adaptations/Lifestyle

• ·         Feed babies milk and keep them warm in incubators

• ·         Hairless and helpless

• ·         99% bamboo

• ·         Other grasses, birds, insects and occasional small rodents or musk deer fawns

• ·         Bamboo, sugar cane, rice gruel, a special high fibre biscuit, carrots, apples, bulbs, fruits and sweet potatoes

• ·         Usually eats while sitting upright, in a pose that resembles how humans sit on the floor

• ·         In a relaxed sitting posture, with their hind legs stretched out before them

• ·         To make up for the inefficient digestion, a panda needs to consume a comparatively large amount of food – from 20 to 40 pounds of bamboo each day

• ·         Spends 10 to 16 hours a day foraging and eating

• ·         Mostly sleeping and resting

• ·         Almost every day wild pandas also drink fresh water from rivers and streams

• ·         Giant pandas do not hibernate (maybe have a link to hiding away even though he shouldn’t)

• ·         Pandas like to be by themselves most of the year (maybe wanting a mate for a while, sick of being on his own)

• ·         Groups of pandas share a large territory and sometimes meet outside the breeding season

• ·         A typical panda eats half the day – 12 out of 24 hours & relieves itself dozens of times a day (maybe keeps going to the toilet)

• ·         They eat different parts of the plant depending on the time of year. Summer and autumn they mostly eat leaves, winter means a diet of tough stems and spring provides tender, young bamboo shoots (what time of year? Maybe flick between)

• ·         One species of bamboo growing in an area will bloom and die at the same time

• ·         May face starvation due to not being able to move on to a different area

• ·         They can be active at any time of the day or night (maybe yawn halfway through video)

• ·         Sleep at the bottom of trees under stumps and rock ledges

Social Structure

• ·         Red panda?

• ·         Generally solitary (DESPICABLE ME – his rubbish relationship with his mum, the cut backs to his child hood)

• ·         Communicate periodically through scent marks, calls and occasional meetings

• ·         They communicate through scent marks, calls and occasional meetings

Reproduction

• ·         Giant pandas reach breeding maturity between 4 and 8

• ·         Reproductive until about age 20

• ·         May give birth to two young, usually only one survives

• ·         Mother panda can only care for one at a time

• ·         A male will seek out different females who are on heat

• ·         Mating season is in spring between March and May

• ·         Males & females usually associate for no more than 2 to 4 days

• ·         For several days after birth, the mother does not leave the den, not even to eat or drink! (abandonment)