Instead, a die-off event could lead to starvation if the pandas fail to find an alternative food source.Ĭurrently, the Chinese government is highly committed to panda conservation efforts because they consider the bear a national treasure. Now though, they can’t travel to higher or lower ground to find an unaffected species. Because they rely almost solely on bamboo for food, pandas need access to multiple species of bamboo in case one suffers a mass die-off event. This separation makes it much harder for pandas to reproduce and avoid inbreeding.Īnother consequence of their small range is limited food availability. According to the latest survey, pandas live in around 33 subpopulations, some of which contain less than 10 individuals. Giant pandas now occupy just a fraction of their historical range in the mountainous areas of central China, and their populations are very fragmented. Since this is a panda’s main source of food, its availability is one of the main prerequisites for suitable panda habitat. The most notable characteristic of panda habitat is the dense thickets of bamboo on the forest floor. They once lived at lower elevations around the bases of these mountains, but these areas have since been developed for farming and other human activities. Giant pandas live in a selection of mountain ranges in central China. However, they remain vulnerable because their population numbers are still very small. Thanks to China’s extensive conservation efforts, giant pandas are no longer as severely threatened by hunting, habitat loss, or human development as they were 30 years ago, and their numbers have actually started to increase. Living proof that threatened animals can be saved, giant pandas were listed as endangered until 2016, when they were reclassified as vulnerable on the IUCN Red List. The panda’s scientific name is Ailuropoda melanoleuca, which means ‘black and white cat foot.’ It was given the common name of ‘panda’ because its bamboo diet and specially adapted paws resembled the red panda, an otherwise unrelated animal that was discovered almost 50 years previously. This, in turn, allows other animals to prosper. However, around half of panda pregnancies result in twins, and the weaker of the two cubs is often abandoned.Īs well as being important to Chinese culture and ecotourism, pandas play an important role in maintaining the health of their environment, helping vegetation to thrive by spreading seeds in their droppings. They can typically only care for one infant at a time because the tiny cubs need constant and careful attention.

Female pandas are pregnant for five months before giving birth to a tiny cub about 1/800 of their size. They only seek out other pandas in spring for mating season. They live solitary lives, using their sense of smell to avoid each other’s territory. Perhaps because much of their time is spent eating, giant pandas are not very social animals. This is because pandas only adopted a bamboo diet a few million years ago, and their digestive system is still that of a carnivore. Of the 12 kilograms of bamboo they eat per day, they can only digest around 17%. Though bamboo makes up most of a panda’s diet, their bodies are not well-suited to digesting the plant. It can take as long as 12 hours a day for a panda to eat the amount of bamboo it needs to get enough nutrients. However, they do also spend a lot of time sitting around eating bamboo. While pandas are known for their clumsy and lazy behaviour often observed in captivity or during feeding, they are actually proficient tree climbers and swimmers. The white sections help them blend into snowy surroundings during winter, and the dark black fur helps them disappear in the shade of trees in summer. While their famous black and white fur pattern might stand out to us, it is actually used for camouflage. The giant panda is considered a national treasure in its home country, China.

Do pandas hibernate like bears