Latest update April 1st, 2025 5:37 PM
Interesting Creatures… The Giant Panda
Kaieteur News – The giant panda (Ailuropoda melanoleuca; Chinese: 大熊猫; pinyin: dàxióngmāo), https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Giant_panda – cite_note-Scheff_Duncan-5 also known as the panda bear or simply the panda, is a bear native to South Central China. It is characterized by large, black patches around its eyes, over the ears, and across its round body. The name “giant panda” is sometimes used to distinguish it from the red panda, a neighbouring musteloid. Though it belongs to the order Carnivore, the giant panda is a failover, with bamboo shoots and leaves making up more than 99 percent of its diet. Giant pandas in the wild will occasionally eat other grasses, wild tubers, or even meat in the form of birds, rodents, or carrion. In captivity, they may receive honey, eggs, fish, yams, shrub leaves, oranges, or bananas, along with specially prepared food.
The giant panda lives in a few mountain ranges in central China, mainly in Sichuan, but also in neighbouring Shaanxi and Gansu. As a result of farming, deforestation, and other developments, the giant panda has been driven out of the lowland areas where it once lived, and it is a conservation-reliant, vulnerable species. A 2007 report showed 239 pandas living in captivity inside China and another 27 outside the country. As of December 2014, 49 giant pandas lived in captivity outside China, living in 18 zoos in 13 different countries. Wild population estimates vary; one estimate shows that there are about 1,590 individuals living in the wild, while a 2006 study via DNA analysis estimated that this figure could be as high as 2,000 to 3,000. Some reports also show that the number of giant pandas in the wild is on the rise. In March 2015, conservation news site Mongabay stated that the wild giant panda population had increased by 268 or 16.8 percent, to 1,864. In 2016, the IUCN reclassified the species from “endangered” to “vulnerable,” affirming decade-long efforts to save the panda.
While the dragon has often served as China’s national symbol, internationally the giant panda has often filled this role. As such, it is becoming widely used within China in international contexts, for example, appearing since 1982 on gold panda bullion coins and as one of the five Fuwa mascots of the Beijing Olympics.
The giant panda has luxuriant black-and-white fur. Adults measure around 1.2 to 1.9 metres (3 feet 11 inches to 6 feet 3 inches) long, including a tail of about 10–15 cm (4–6 in), and 60 to 90 cm (24 to 35 in) tall at the shoulder. Males can weigh up to 160 kg (350 lbs). Females (generally 10–20 percent smaller than males) can weigh as little as 70 kg (150 lbs), but can also weigh up to 125 kg (276 lbs). The average weight for adults is 100 to 115 kg (220 to 254 lbs).
The giant panda has a body shape typical of bears. It has black fur on its ears, eye patches, muzzle, legs, arms and shoulders. The rest of the animal’s coat is white. Although scientists do not know why these unusual bears are black and white, speculation suggests that the bold colouring provides effective camouflage in their shade-dappled snowy and rocky habitat, and that their eye patches might facilitate them identifying one another. The giant panda’s thick, woolly coat keeps it warm in the cool forests of its habitat. The panda’s skull shape is typical of durophagous carnivores. It has evolved from previous ancestors to exhibit larger molars with increased complexity and expanded temporal fossa. A 110.45 kg (243.5 lbs) giant panda has a 3D canine teeth bite force of 2603.47 newtons and bite force quotient of 292.] Another study had a 117.5 kg (259 lbs) giant panda bite of 1298.9 newtons (BFQ 151.4) at canine teeth and 1815.9 newtons (BFQ 141.8) at carnassial teeth.
The giant panda’s paw has a “thumb” and five fingers; the “thumb” – actually a modified sesamoid bone – helps it to hold bamboo while eating. Stephen Jay Gould discusses this feature in his book of essays on evolution and biology, The Panda’s Thumb.
The giant panda’s tail, measuring 10 to 15 cm (4 to 6 in), is the second longest in the bear family (the longest belongs to the sloth bear).
The giant panda typically lives around 20 years in the wild and up to 30 years in captivity. A female named Jia Jia, was the oldest giant panda ever in captivity, born in 1978 and died at an age of 38 on 16 October 2016. (Source: Wikipedia)
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