Panda Info

 
Giant Panda
Order: Carnivora
Family: Ursidae
Genus and species: Ailuropoda melanoleuca

Geographic distribution
Giant pandas live in a few mountain ranges in central China, in Sichuan, Shaanxi, and Gansu provinces. They once lived in lowland areas, but farming, forest clearing, and other development now restrict giant pandas to the mountains.

Habitat
Giant pandas live in broadleaf and coniferous forests with a dense understory of bamboo, at elevations between 5,000 and 10,000 feet. Torrential rains or dense mist throughout the year characterizes these forests, often shrouded in heavy clouds.

Physical description
The giant panda, a black-and-white bear, has a body typical of bears. It has black fur on ears, eye patches, muzzle, legs, and shoulders. The rest of the animal's coat is white. Although scientists do not know why these unusual bears are black and white, some speculate that the bold coloring provides effective camouflage into their shade-dappled snowy and rocky surroundings. The panda's thick, wooly coat keeps it warm in the cool forests of its habitat. Giant pandas have large molar teeth and strong jaw muscles for crushing tough bamboo. Many people find these chunky, lumbering animals to be cute, but giant pandas can be as dangerous as any other bear.

Size
About the size of an American black bear, giant pandas stand between two and three feet tall at the shoulder (on all four legs), and reach four to six feet long. Males are larger than females, weighing up to 250 pounds in the wild. Females rarely reach 220 pounds.

Status
The giant panda is listed as endangered in the World Conservation Union's (IUCN's) Red List of Threatened Species. There are about 1,600 left in the wild. More than 300 pandas live in zoos and breeding centers around the world, mostly in China.

Life span
Scientists aren't sure how long giant pandas live in the wild, but they are sure it's shorter than lifespans in zoos. Chinese scientists have reported zoo pandas as old as 35. The National Zoo's Hsing-Hsing died at age 28 in 1999.

Diet
A wild giant panda’s diet is almost exclusively (99 percent) bamboo. The balance consists of other grasses and occasional small rodents or musk deer fawns. In zoos, giant pandas eat bamboo, sugar cane, rice gruel, a special high-fiber biscuit, carrots, apples, and sweet potatoes.

Social structure
Adult giant pandas are generally solitary, but they do communicate periodically through scent marks, calls, and occasional meetings. Offspring stay with their mothers from one and a half to three years.

The giant panda has lived in bamboo forests for several million years. It is a highly specialized animal, with unique adaptations.

Feeding adaptations

Millions of Zoo visitors enjoy watching giant pandas eat. A panda usually eats while sitting upright, in a pose that resembles how humans sit on the floor. This posture leaves the front paws free to grasp bamboo stems with the help of a "pseudo thumb," formed by an elongated and enlarged wrist bone covered with a fleshy pad of skin. The panda also uses its powerful jaws and strong teeth to crush the tough, fibrous bamboo into bits.
A giant panda’s digestive system is more similar to that of a carnivore than an herbivore, and so much of what is eaten is passed as waste. 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—to get all its nutrients. To obtain this much food means that a panda must spend 10 to 16 hours a day foraging and eating. The rest of its time is spent mostly sleeping and resting.

Water

Wild giant pandas get much of the water they need from bamboo, a grass whose contents are about half water. (New bamboo shoots are about 90 percent water.) But giant pandas need more water than what bamboo alone can provide. So almost every day wild pandas also drink fresh water from rivers and streams that are fed by melting snowfall in high mountain peaks. The temperate forests of central China where giant pandas live receive about 30 to 40 inches of rain and snow a year. Charleston, West Virginia—a city with a similar temperate climate—receives about the same amount of rain and snow: an average of 42.5 inches a year.

Reproduction

Giant pandas reach breeding maturity between four and eight years of age. They may be reproductive until about age 20. Female pandas ovulate only once a year, in the spring. A short period of two to three days around ovulation is the only time she is able to conceive. Calls and scents draw males and females to each other.
Female giant pandas give birth between 95 and 160 days after mating. Although females may give birth to two young, usually only one survives. Giant panda cubs may stay with their mothers for up to three years before striking out on their own. This means a wild female, at best, can produce young only every other year; in her lifetime, she may successfully raise only five to eight cubs. The giant pandas’ naturally slow breeding rate prevents a population from recovering quickly from illegal hunting, habitat loss, and other human-related causes of mortality.

Development

At birth, the cub is helpless, and it takes considerable effort on the mother’s part to raise it. A newborn cub weighs three to five ounces and is about the size of a stick of butter. Pink, hairless, and blind, the cub is 1/900th the size of its mother. Except for a marsupial (such as the kangaroo or opossum), a giant panda baby is the smallest mammal newborn relative to its mother's size.
Cubs do not open their eyes until they are six to eight weeks of age and are not mobile until three months. A cub may nurse for eight to nine months. A cub is nutritionally weaned at one year, but not socially weaned for up to two years. Read more about panda cub develoment.

Lifestyle

A wild panda spends much of its day resting, feeding, and seeking food. Unlike other bears from temperate climates, giant pandas do not hibernate. Until recently, scientists thought giant pandas spent most of their lives alone, with males and females meeting only during the breeding season. Recent studies paint a different picture, in which small groups of pandas share a large territory and sometimes meet outside the breeding season. Much remains to be learned about the secret lives of these elusive animals, and every new discovery helps scientists in their battle to save this species.
http://nationalzoo.si.edu/animals/giantpandas/pandafacts/default.cfm

Did you know?
A giant panda is born pink, hairless, blind and 1/900th the size of its mother.

Giant Panda
Common Name: Giant panda
Scientific Name: Ailuropoda melanoleuca
Location: Southwest China (Gansu, Shaanxi, and Sichuan Provinces) to the east of the Tibetan plateau.
Population: Less than 1,600 in the wild (2004)

The giant panda is the rarest member of the bear family and among the world’s most threatened animals. It is universally loved, and has a special significance for WWF as it has been the organization's logo since 1961, the year WWF was founded.

Today, the giant panda's future remains uncertain. As China's economy continues rapidly developing, this bamboo-eating member of the bear family faces a number of threats. Its forest habitat, in the mountainous areas of southwest China, is increasingly fragmented by roads and railroads. Habitat loss continues to occur outside of protected areas, while poaching remains an ever-present threat.

Giant Panda (Ailuropoda melanoleuca) in a tree. Wolong Panda Reserve, Sichuan Province, China.
© Bernard DE WETTER / WWF-Canon

Great strides have been made in recent years to conserve the giant pandas. By 2005, the Chinese government had established over 50 panda reserves, protecting more than 2.5 million acres - over 45 percent of remaining giant panda habitat – protecting more than 60 percent of the population.

In 1984, the giant panda was transferred from Appendix III to Appendix I of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) . Trade in the species or its products are subject to strict regulation by the ratifying parties, and trade for primarily commercial purposes is banned.

Why is this species important?
The panda’s habitat in the Yangtze Basin ecoregion is shared by both pandas and millions of people who use the region's natural resources. This ecoregion is the geographic and economic heart of China. It is also critical for biodiversity conservation. Its diverse habitats contain many rare, endemic and endangered flora and fauna, the best known being the giant panda.

Economic benefits derived from the Yangtze Basin include tourism, subsistence fisheries and agriculture, transport, hydropower and water resources. The survival of the panda and the protection of its habitat will ensure that people living in the region continue to reap ecosystem benefits for many generations.

Evolution of a symbol
When some of the world’s scientists and conservationists met in 1961 to plan how to publicize the threat to wildlife and wild places and to raise funds to support conservation projects, they decided to launch the World Wildlife Fund (WWF). They needed a symbol, and at the time Chi Chi, the only giant panda in the Western world, had won the hearts of all that saw her at the London Zoo in the United Kingdom. She was a rare animal, like her wild panda cousins in China, and her form and color were the ideal basis for an attractive symbol.

Scottish naturalist Gerald Watterson made some preliminary sketches, from which Sir Peter Scott, world-renowned wildlife conservationist and painter, designed the WWF’s giant panda logo. The design of the logo has evolved over the past four decades, but the giant panda’s distinctive features remain an integral part of WWF’s treasured and unmistakable symbol. For years, the giant panda has been thought of by many Chinese as an unofficial national symbol, too. Today, WWF’s trademark is recognized not only in China but also in most countries as a universal symbol for the conservation movement itself.

WWF works to:
WWF has been active in giant panda conservation since 1980, and was the first international conservation organization to work in China at the Chinese government's invitation.

It is important to recognize that WWF and other NGOs are significant, but peripheral players in China. After many years of observation and practice it is clear that WWF’s main role in China is to assist and influence policy level conservation decisions through information collection, demonstration of conservation approaches at all levels and capacity building. In addition, WWF also serves as a facilitator; a source of information and a communicator in panda conservation.

Early panda conservation work included the first-ever intensive field studies of wild panda ecology and behavior. Current work focuses on the Minshan Mountains in Sichuan and Gansu provinces and the Qinling Mountains in Shaanxi province. Specifically our work includes:

• Increasing the area of habitat under legal protection
• Creating green corridors to link isolated pandas
• Patrolling against poaching, illegal logging and encroachment
• Building local capacities for nature reserve management
• Continued research and monitoring

Recently, WWF has been helping the government of China to undertake its National Conservation Program for the giant panda and its habitat. This program has made significant progress. Reserves for the pandas cover more than 3.8 million acres of forest in and around their habitat.

http://www.worldwildlife.org/species/finder/giantpanda/panda.html

The giant panda has an insatiable appetite for bamboo. A typical animal eats half the day—a full 12 out of every 24 hours—and relieves itself dozens of times a day. It takes 28 pounds (12.5 kilograms) of bamboo to satisfy a giant panda's daily dietary needs, and it hungrily plucks the stalks with elongated wrist bones that function rather like thumbs. Pandas will sometimes eat birds or rodents as well.

Wild pandas live only in remote, mountainous regions in central China. These high bamboo forests are cool and wet—just as pandas like it. They may climb as high as 13,000 feet (3,962 meters) to feed on higher slopes in the summer season.

Pandas are often seen eating in a relaxed sitting posture, with their hind legs stretched out before them. They may appear sedentary, but they are skilled tree-climbers and efficient swimmers.

Giant pandas are solitary. They have a highly developed sense of smell that males use to avoid each other and to find females for mating in the spring. After a five-month pregnancy, females give birth to a cub or two, though they cannot care for both twins. The blind infants weigh only 5 ounces (142 grams) at birth and cannot crawl until they reach three months of age. They are born white, and develop their much loved coloring later.

There are only about 1,000 giant pandas left in the wild. Perhaps 100 pandas live in zoos, where they are always among the most popular attractions. Much of what we know about pandas comes from study of these zoo animals, because their wild cousins are so rare and elusive.

Fast Facts

Type:Mammal

Diet:Omnivore

Average life span in the wild:20 years

Size:4 to 5 ft (1.2 to 1.5 m)

Weight:300 lbs (136 kg)

Protection status:Endangered

Size relative to a 6-ft (2-m) man:

http://animals.nationalgeographic.com/animals/mammals/giant-panda/

Rare Bears

The giant panda is a medium-sized black-and-white bear that lives only in the mountainous temperate forests of southwest China. Giant pandas eat a diet of bamboo. The giant panda is one of the most endangered animals on Earth. Only about 1,600 of these rare bears are left. This number includes more than 160 pandas living in zoos and breeding centers around the world, mostly in China.

Creatures of the Forest

Giant pandas live in a few isolated mountain ranges in the provinces of Sichuan, Shaanxi, and Gansu in south-central China. They live in broadleaf and coniferous forests with a dense understory of bamboo, at elevations between 1,500 m and 3,000 m. Torrential rains, dense mists, and heavy cloud cover characterize these forests throughout much of the year. The giant panda has lived in bamboo forests for several million years. It is a highly specialized animal, with unique adaptations.

Bamboo for Every Meal

Bamboo is the giant panda's favorite food. Adult giant pandas will spend 10 to 16 hours a day finding and eating bamboo. They eat different parts of the plant depending on the time of year. In the summer and autumn, pandas munch mostly on leaves. Winter means a diet of tough stems. Spring provides tender, young bamboo shoots. 
A giant panda’s digestive system is more similar to that of a carnivore than an herbivore. Because bamboo does not provide much nutrition, a panda needs to eat a large amount of food. It may eat up to 20 kg of bamboo each day to get all the nutrients it needs.

Panda Parts

Giant pandas stand 1 m tall at the shoulder (on all four legs) and are 1.5 m long. Males are larger than females, weighing up to 115 kg in the wild. Females rarely reach 100 kg.
Giant pandas have a very specialized anatomy linking them to bamboo for survival. Their front paws are specially designed to allow them to hold bamboo stalks. Giant pandas appear to have thumbs. But these "thumbs" 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.
Click on the panda below to discover more about how its body is designed.

K.Feng/GLOBIO.org

Giving Birth in the Wild

A mother panda takes gentle care of her tiny cub. In the wild, cubs stay with their mothers until they are two to three years old.

©K.Feng/GLOBIO.org

Female giant pandas can become pregnant only once a year in the spring. Barking calls and scents draw males and females to each other. Females give birth between 95 and 160 days after mating. Females may give birth to two young pandas, but usually only one survives. 

Pink Pandas?

The bodies of newborn giant panda cubs are completely pink with a sparse covering of white hair. Giant pandas are not giants when they are born. Their eyes are closed, like a kitten, and they weigh only 120-175 g. They are around 15 cm long - about the size of a hotdog!

Giant pandas are tiny and helpless when they are born. Notice the tail. Adult pandas also have a tail, but it is smaller compared to its body size.

©K.Feng/GLOBIO.org

After one week, dark patches begin to appear near the eyes and ears. Then the skin on their legs and backs begins to darken. Soon, black hair will grow in these areas and white hair everywhere else. Baby pandas’ eyes open when they are about one month old. They begin to crawl when they are three to four months old.  

Mother Knows Best

Giant pandas are cubs until they are about two years old. Like all bears, they start to explore the world outside the den once they are strong enough to follow their mother’s lead. Giant panda mothers spend most of the time looking for bamboo shoots, stems, and tender leaves.
Young giant pandas use this time to learn about the forest and to climb trees. Cubs love to climb, and they quickly become very skilled. They have sharp, strong claws on both their front and back feet. Cubs may stay with their mothers for up to three years before striking out on their own.

Life Out in the Wild

An adult giant panda spends much of its day resting, seeking food, and eating. Unlike other bears from temperate climates, giant pandas do not hibernate. Until recently, scientists thought giant pandas spent most of their lives alone. They believed that males and females met only during the breeding season.
Recent studies paint a different picture. Small groups of giant pandas share a large territory and sometimes meet outside the breeding season. Much remains to be learned about the secret lives of these animals. Every new discovery helps scientists in their battle to save this species.

Giving Birth in Captivity

Giant pandas are also born in captivity. Captive breeding centers were started because giant pandas are so endangered. The giant pandas’ naturally slow breeding rate prevents a population from recovering quickly from illegal hunting, habitat loss, and other human-related causes of death. The captive breeding centers provide a protected place for giant pandas to breed and for baby pandas to grow up. One of the most famous centers for breeding baby pandas is the Wolong Nature Reserve.

What to do with Twins

When pandas are born in captivity, they often have twins. Panda mothers will only care for one baby at a time. This means the keepers at the breeding center have to help care for the babies and keep them healthy. They feed the babies milk and keep them warm in incubators. The mother panda still gets to take care of both babies, but she cares for them one at a time.

Mr. Huang Yan checks a two-week-old baby panda to make sure it is developing properly. The baby is beginning to show its black coloring.

©K.Feng/GLOBIO.org

Growing Up in Captivity

In captivity, young giant pandas remain together and have a chance to play. In the wild, it would be very rare for a young giant panda to meet another cub. This is because mother pandas live alone rather than in groups with other pandas. When panda cubs play, they appear to have lots of fun. But they are also learning important skills. For example, researchers hide snacks in hanging plastic tubes to teach the cubs how to search for food.

Branching Out From Bamboo

Giant pandas are now becoming easier to raise in captivity. This is because their keepers have discovered what foods to feed them. Cubs get a bowl of special milk for breakfast and lunch until they are about two years old. The milk is made by boiling rice and adding vitamins. Between the age of seven and nine months, panda cubs begin to snack on tender bamboo shoots. Other foods captive giant pandas eat include sugar cane, carrots, apples, and sweet potatoes. They also eat “panda bread” made from a mixture of ground bamboo, grains, and assorted vitamins and minerals.

Giant panda cubs in captivity are given a special milk porridge twice a day. Their keepers make sure they are getting plenty to eat and that they are growing well.

©K.Feng/GLOBIO.org

Living Up to Their Name

Giant panda cubs grow quickly. Every few days, the staff at the breeding center must weigh them to check on their development. That includes lifting them onto a scale. This isn’t an easy job when the panda weighs almost as much as you do! No wonder they’re called giant pandas!

Pandas and People

In China, people and giant pandas have been living together for thousands of years. But China’s human population has been steadily growing. It is now the largest in the world. More people means more land is needed for farming. It also means more forests are cut for wood to build and heat houses. Loss of habitat in lowland areas has forced pandas to live only in the mountains.

Habitat Loss

The most damaging result of development has been that it has divided the panda’s habitat into little islands of forest. Today, many pandas are isolated in these small sections of forest, because they will cross into areas where humans live. The result is that the giant pandas cannot connect with one another to mate and have babies. 

Make Room for Pandas

People are trying to help the giant panda survive by creating protected areas and breeding centers. China has 37 official areas for protecting the giant panda. All of these areas are in mountainous southwestern China. The Wolong Nature Reserve is one of the most famous. 

The Role of the Wolong Nature Reserve

The protected temperate forest of Wolong Nature Reserve is a critical habitat for the survival of the endangered giant panda.

©G.Ellis/GLOBIO.org

Wolong is famous for its giant panda breeding center called the China Conservation and Research Center for the Giant Panda. Wolong's temperate forest is an extraordinary and beautiful place full of other rare mammals including the red panda, beautiful birds, insects, and plants found nowhere else in the world. The giant panda is an umbrella species. Protecting the panda protects the habitat for many other wild plants and animals that are critical to the biodiversity of the forest.
http://www.globio.org/glossopedia/article.aspx?art_id

Social structure and breeding

The "family" life

Giant pandas are generally solitary, each adult having a well-defined home range, within which they move about regularly.

Although they are not territorial, females do not tolerate other females and sub-adults within the core areas of their range.

Encounters are rare outside the brief mating season, but pandas communicate fairly often, mostly through vocalization and scent marking.

As the animals move about, they mark their routes by spraying urine, clawing tree trunks, and rubbing against objects.

Breeding

Pandas are erroneously believed to be poor breeders.

This is an impression based on the disappointing reproductive performance of captive pandas.

But wild panda populations involved in long-term studies are known to have reproductive rates comparable to those of some populations of American black bears, which are thriving.

Panda breeding facts:

• Giant pandas reach sexual maturity at 5.5 to 6.5 years.
• A female can mate with several males, who compete with each other to mate with her.
• A male will seek out different females who are on heat.
• The mating season is in spring between March and May.
• Males and females usually associate for no more than 2 to 4 days.
• Gestation takes about 95 to 160 days and pandas normally give birth to single young (twins seem to be born more frequently in captivity, when artificial insemination is used).
• The reproductive rate is about 1 young every 2 years

© Susan A. MAINKA / WWF-Canon

http://wwf.panda.org/what_we_do/endangered_species/giant_panda/panda/panda_social_structure_and_breeding/

Life cycle

• A newborn panda cub weighs only 90-130gr. and is about the size of a stick of butter.
• The panda cub is 1/900th the size of its mother, one of the smallest newborn mammals relative to its mother's size.
• Pandas are dependent on their mothers for the first few months of their lives and are fully weaned at 8 to 9 months.
• Most pandas leave their mothers when she conceives again, usually at about 18 months.
• A panda's average life span in the wild is 14-20 years (but a panda can live up to 30 years in captivity).

http://wwf.panda.org/what_we_do/endangered_species/giant_panda/panda/panda_life_cycle/

Giant pandas are black and white and loved all over

The giant panda is a national treasure in China and is therefore protected by law. This unique bear has long been revered by the Chinese and can be found in Chinese art dating back thousands of years. The Chinese call their beloved pandas "large bear-cats." People outside of China have been fascinated by giant pandas since they were first described by French Missionary Pere Armand David in 1869. Now, more than 100 years later, the worldwide love for pandas has been combined with international efforts to keep them from becoming extinct.

How did the panda get its colors?

Scientists aren't exactly sure. One theory is that pandas developed the contrasting black and white colors over time so they would stand out in the forest and be able to find each other to mate. Another idea is that the broad blockings of contrasting color may serve to camouflage the panda in the bamboo or treetops. Anyone who's tried to spot one of our panda cubs up in the tree napping can verify how difficult that can be! Scientists have yet to confirm what the real purpose of the panda's coloration is. Each panda’s markings are slightly different from one another. There is also a rare brown and white variation of the giant panda.

Are giant pandas bears?

For years scientists have wondered whether pandas are bears, raccoons, or in a group all their own. Through studying the genetic code (DNA) in pandas’ cells, scientists have confirmed the panda's relationship with bears. Giant pandas are similar to other bears in their general looks, the way they walk and climb, and their skull characteristics. It's important to know that pandas are bears, because the more we know about pandas, the better we can help them reproduce and survive.
A panda newborn is all white.

Giant pandas start out small

Giant pandas are only about the size of a stick of butter at birth, and they're hairless and helpless. The panda mother gives great care to her tiny cub, usually cradling it in one paw and holding it close to her chest. For several days after birth, the mother does not leave the den, not even to eat or drink!
The cub's eyes open at 50 to 60 days of age and by 10 weeks the cub begins to crawl. Its teeth appear by the time it is 14 weeks old and mother and cub spend much less time using their den. By 21 weeks, the cub is able to walk pretty well. At this time, the cub starts to play with its mother and at seven to 9 months of age it starts attempting to eat bamboo. The cub continues to nurse until about 18 months of age. At this time, the mother is ready to send the cub off on its own so she can prepare for her next cub.
Yet despite the attention they receive from their mothers, many young pandas do not survive. Through captive propagation programs in China and other zoos around the world, we are learning more about the care of panda cubs and how to help them reach adulthood.

Bamboo is food and shelter

Bamboo is the most important plant in a giant panda's life. Pandas live in cold and rainy bamboo forests high in the mountains of western China. They spend at least 12 hours each day eating bamboo. Because bamboo is so low in nutrients, pandas eat as much as 84 pounds (38 kilograms) of it each day. Pandas grasp bamboo stalks with their five fingers and a special wristbone, then use their teeth to peel off the tough outer layers to reveal the soft inner tissue. Strong jaw bones and cheek muscles help pandas crush and chew the thick stalks with their flattened back teeth. Bamboo leaves are also on the menu, as pandas strip them off the stalks, wad them up, and swallow them. Giant pandas have also been known to eat grasses, bulbs, fruits, some insects, and even rodents and carrion. At the San Diego Zoo, pandas are offered bamboo, carrots, yams, and special leaf eater biscuits made of grain and packed with all the vitamins and minerals pandas need.
The average panda home range is thought to be approximately 1.9 square miles (5 square kilometers), with male ranges larger than that of females. In areas where food is not plentiful, the home range can be larger.

Vocal pandas

Pandas make a bleating sound similar to the sound a lamb or a goat kid would make. It's a friendly sound, a greeting. They don't roar, the way you think of a brown bear roaring. But they do bleat and honk, they sometimes huff, bark, or growl, and young cubs croak and squeal.

Giant pandas face big problems

Today, only around 1,600 giant pandas survive on Earth. There are several reasons why pandas are endangered:
Low reproductive rate— Pandas like to be by themselves most of the year, and they have a very short breeding season when a male will look for a female to mate with. Females give birth to one or two cubs, which are very dependent on their mothers during the first few years of life. In the wild, mother pandas will care for only one of the young. In panda facilities in China, keepers help to hand raise any twin cubs. One baby is left with the mother and the keepers switch the twins every few days so each one gets care and milk directly from the mother.
Bamboo shortages— When bamboo plants reach maturity, they flower and produce seeds, and then the mature plant dies. The seeds grow slowly into plants large enough for pandas to eat. Giant pandas can eat 25 different types of bamboo, but they usually eat only the 4 or 5 kinds that grow in their home range. The unusual thing about bamboo is that all of the plants of one species growing in an area will bloom and die at the same time. When those plants die, pandas move to another area. But now, with humans taking up much of the panda’s habitat, pandas are often unable to move to another area and may face starvation.
Habitat destruction— China has more than one billion people. As people build more cities and farms and use more natural resources, giant pandas lose their homes.
Hunting— When hunters set snares for other animals, like musk deer, the traps often kill pandas instead.

It takes an international effort

Work to keep pandas from becoming extinct crosses oceans and international boundaries. In China, wildlife reserves have been established to ensure that the remaining wild pandas have space to live, eat, and move around without human interference. There is still much that humans do not know about pandas. We must understand how pandas survive, reproduce, and communicate. Researchers at zoos like the San Diego Zoo are studying pandas' scent marking, their nutritional needs, and how they communicate with each other.
Working together with Chinese panda experts may help increase the number of giant pandas and ensure the future survival of the giant panda population. A giant panda milk formula created by the Zoo's nutritionist and a hand-rearing technique developed by the Chinese called "twin swapping" have transformed the survival rate of nursery-reared panda cubs in China from zero percent to 95 percent. The giant panda breeding rate at the Wolong Breeding Center in China increased dramatically following multiyear collaborations with San Diego Zoo Conservation Research.

http://www.sandiegozoo.org/animalbytes/t-giant_panda.html

Fast Facts

Height: 2.5 feet (.8m) at shoulders.
Length: 5 ft (1.5m) (with a 6 inch (.2m) tail).
Weight: Around 250 lbs (113 kg) (males); around 220 lbs (100 kg) (females).
Lifespan 20-30 years in captivity

Diet

Pandas eat bamboo. Since giant pandas have the digestive system of a carnivore, they do not have the ability to digest cellulose (plant matter) efficiently and thus derive little energy and little protein from consumption of bamboo. So, the average giant panda has to eat as much as 20 to 45 lbs (9-20 kg) of bamboo shoots a day. On occasion, giant pandas are also known to eat flowers, vines, tufted grasses, green corn, honey and rodents.

Population

Did You Know?

The panda's scientific name, Ailuropoda melanoleuca, literally means "cat-foot black-and-white."
Today, an estimated 2,000 pandas are found in the wild. By the end of 2006, there were a reported 180 pandas in captivity on mainland China and about 20 in other countries.

Range

Historically pandas lived in both mountainous and lowland regions of central-western and southwestern China. They are now found only in the mountains of central China, in Sichuan, Shaanxi and Gansu provinces. See a panda range map >>

Behavior

Giant pandas are found mostly in thick bamboo and coniferous forests (evergreens with seed cones) at 8,500 to 11,500 feet in elevation. They are generally solitary animals that spend most of their days feeding. However, they do communicate with each other once in a while through scent markings, calls and occasional meetings.
Unlike other bears, giant pandas do not hibernate. In the winter, they move to lower elevations to keep warm, while traveling to higher elevations in the summer to stay cool. They can be active at any time of the day or night.
Pandas do not have permanent homes but sleep at the bottom of trees under stumps and rock ledges.

Did You Know?

At birth, panda cubs typically weigh 4-8oz (100–200g) and measure around 6 inches (15cm) long.
Reproduction
Mating Season: March-May.
Gestation: 3-5 months.
Litter size: 1-2 cubs.
Cubs are born blind and helpless and if there are twins, only one cub survives. The cub's eyes open at six to eight weeks and it starts to move around at three months. Weaned at six months, the cub becomes independent after a year. They may, however, stay with their mothers for up to three years before they strike out on their own.

Climate Change and Other Threats

The most serious threat to the panda is loss of habitat. Already confined to small remote areas in the mountains of China, much of their natural lowland habitat has been destroyed by farmers, development and forest clearing, forcing them further upland and reducing and fragmenting their habitat. This fragmentation of habitat is detrimental to the panda’s ability to find food.
Because they can consume up to 45 pounds of bamboo in a day, it is sometimes necessary for pandas to travel to a new location once the bamboo supply of an area is depleted. However, the fragmentation of their range by humans can make finding new food difficult. Any climate changes that alter the natural range of bamboo species will make these remaining islands of habitat even more precarious.

Reasons For Hope

Did You Know?

Pandas have evolved special features to help them eat their favorite food: strong jaws, large molars, and a "thumb" that helps them hold the bamboo while they eat!
The panda has become one of the most recognizable animals in the world and loved for its playful nature and unique coloring. For a long time very little was known about pandas in the wild but as technology becomes more advanced, researchers are able to learn more about pandas in their natural environment. This will help conservationists better understand what help is most necessary for the pandas continued survival.
As pandas are what is known as a conservation reliant species, more than 160 pandas are located in zoos or breeding centers around the world in an effort to breed them and bolster their numbers.

http://www.defenders.org/wildlife_and_habitat/wildlife/panda.php

Panda Facts Giant Pandas

Giant pandas are black and white bears that live in temperate-zone bamboo forests in central China. Among the best recognized but rarest animals in the world, they have come to symbolize endangered species and conservation efforts.

Scientific Classification

(Genus and Species, Family, Order): Ailuropoda melanoleuca, Ursidae, Carnivora.

Geographic Distribution

Giant pandas live in a few mountain ranges in central China’s Sichuan, Shaanxi, and Gansu provinces. They once lived in lowland areas, but farming, forest clearing, and other development now restrict giant pandas to the mountains.

Habitat

Giant pandas live in broadleaf and coniferous forests with a dense understory of bamboo, at elevations between 5,000 and 10,000 feet. Torrential rains or dense mist throughout the year characterizes these forests, often shrouded in heavy clouds.

Physical Description

A giant panda is bear-like in shape. It has black fur on ears, eye patches, muzzle, legs, and shoulders. The rest of the animal's coat is white. Although scientists do not know why these unusual bears are black and white, some speculate that the bold coloring provides effective camouflage into their shade-dappled snowy and rocky surroundings. The panda's thick, wooly coat keeps it warm in the cool forests of its habitat. Giant pandas have large molar teeth and strong jaw muscles for crushing tough bamboo. Many people find these chunky, lumbering animals to be cute, but giant pandas can be as dangerous as any other bear.

Size

About the size of an American black bear, giant pandas stand between two and three feet tall at the shoulder (on all four legs), and reach four to six feet long. Males are larger than females, weighing up to 250 pounds in the wild. Females rarely reach 220 pounds.

Status

The giant panda is listed as endangered in the World Conservation Union's (IUCN's) Red List of Threatened Animals. It is one of the most critically endangered species in the world. There are about 1,000 left in the wild. About 140 pandas live in zoos and breeding centers around the world, mostly in China.

Life Span

Scientists are not sure how long giant pandas live in the wild, but they are sure it is shorter than lifespans in zoos. Chinese scientists have reported zoo pandas as old as 35.

Diet

A wild giant panda’s diet is almost exclusively (99 percent) bamboo. The balance consists of other grasses and occasional small rodents or musk deer fawns. In zoos, giant pandas eat bamboo, sugar cane, rice gruel, a special high-fiber biscuit, carrots, apples, and sweet potatoes.

Social Structure

Adult giant pandas are generally solitary, but they do communicate periodically through scent marks, calls, and occasional meetings. Offspring stay with their mothers from one and a half to three years.

http://www.china.org.cn/english/features/panda/37997.htm