Giant Panda Bear Facts | Endangered Animals

Giant pandas are a type of bear native to China. Photo by Foreverhappy-Mee / iStock.com.

Native to the mountain forests of southwest China, the giant panda is one of the most beloved animals in the world.

A type of bear, the giant panda can be identified by its distinctive black and white coloring. Its ears, eyes, nose, shoulders and legs are black while the rest of its body is white. Its thick hair keeps it warm in the cool, wet mountain zones.

When on all fours, giant pandas average between 60-100 cm (2-3 ft.) tall at the shoulder and between 1-2 m (4-6 ft.) long. They can weigh between 100-115 kg (220-250 lb.), with males being larger than females.

Special “Thumbs”

One of the interesting evolutionary traits of the panda is their protruding wrist bone that acts like a thumb. This helps the pandas hold bamboo while they munch on it with their strong molar teeth.

Giant pandas use their protruding wrist bones to help them grasp bamboo while they eat. Photo by Foreverhappy-Mee / iStock.com.

What Giant Pandas Eat

Bamboo makes up nearly the entire diet of the panda. Due to the low nutritional value of bamboo, pandas need to eat 10-20 kg (20-40 lb.) a day.

Occasionally pandas will eat other available food, including small rodents, eggs, fish and other flora.

Giant pandas need to eat 10-20 kg (20-40 lb.) every day! Photo by mrbfaust / iStock.com.

Bamboo provides a good amount of water, but pandas need to supplement this with fresh water daily.

How Pandas Communicate

Giant pandas make a variety of calls, including honks, huffs, barks, squeaks, and growls. But their most common call is a bleat, similar to a goat or sheep sound.

They also communicate by scents. They have scent glands on their rumps, which they rub on trees, rocks or the ground.

They also scent mark with urine. Sometimes male pandas even do handstands so they can leave pee high up on a tree trunk.

Can Pandas Climb Trees?

Giant pandas are exceptional tree climbers. Though adult pandas don’t spend too much time in trees, cubs start climbing from an early age to explore or to avoid predators, such as jackals and snow leopards.

When researchers at the Chengdu Research Base of Giant Panda Breeding in China observed panda cubs climbing trees, they found the most effective climbers used their heads to help hug and grip the tree trunk as they shinnied up.

Panda cubs often climb trees to avoid predators or to explore. They may use their head to help grip the tree trunk as they climb up. Photo by Hung_Chung_Chih / iStock.com.

Giant Panda Reproduction

Female pandas are only able to become pregnant for 2-3 days each spring! In this small window of time, male and female pandas find each other through scents and calls.

After 95-160 days of becoming pregnant, the female panda will give birth to one or two cubs. Often only one survives.

Baby pandas are born blind, hairless, and tiny, weighing only 85-140 g (3-5 oz.). Completely helpless, a panda cub cannot move much on its own for nearly 3 months.

In turn, the mother is very protective and careful in tending to her cub during this time.

When pandas are between 4-8 years of age, they reach maturity and can reproduce.

Photo by Troy Chen / iStock.com.

Conservation Status

With only around 1850 pandas living in the wild, the giant panda is listed as vulnerable by the IUCN Red List.

Due to the fact that pandas reproduce so infrequently, it is very difficult for their population to recover from such a low point.

One the main reasons that panda populations have declined is habitat destruction. As the human population in China continues to grow, pandas’ habitat gets taken over by development, pushing them into smaller and less livable areas.

A giant panda at Shaanxi Province Rare Wildlife Rescue and Breeding Research Center in China. Photo by Tamas-V / iStock.com.

Habitat destruction also leads to food shortages. Pandas feed on several varieties of bamboo that bloom at different times of the year.

If one type of bamboo is destroyed by development, it can leave the pandas with nothing to eat during the time it normally blooms, increasing the risk of starvation.

To combat this issue, the Chinese government has actively worked to restore and protect bamboo habitat, and these measures have shown positive results.

What You Can Do to Help

Wildlife reserves have been set up in parts of China to make sure the pandas have a home, and care is taken to make sure they survive in the wild. Researchers continue to study how pandas breed in an effort to increase the population.

You can help by donating or adopting a panda through the World Wildlife Fund.