The giant panda

The giant panda

The giant panda or panda literally means "black and white catfoot". The bear animal are native in central-western and south-western China.  You recognize them by the black patches around the eyes, over the ears and across its big body. Fenced pandas diet is 99% bamboo, about 14kg a day, but pandas in the wild might eat other grasses, wild tubers, or even meat in form of birds or rodents. In captivity they may also receive honey, eggs, fish, yams, shrub leaves, oranges, or bananas along with specially prepared feed. The giant panda lives in a few mountain ranges in central China

The population changes all the time. One estimate shows that there are about 1,590 pandas living in the wild. While a 2006 study thought there could be as many as 2,000 to 3,000 individuals. Some reports also show that the number is on the rise. However the IUCN doesn't think that it is time to reclassify the species from endangered to vulnerable yet.

The manly reason way the panda has disappeared is that theirs environment has been destroyed by the humans. In the south and east China, all the forest has been cut down to make room for plantations and houses or villages. The panda was forced to move to the most inaccessible places of their original range.

One of the biggest threats against the panda occurs when the bamboo is in bloom. The bamboo dies every 10 to 100 years when the bamboo blooms and has spread their seeds. It can take up to a year to grow up again. During that time, the pandas has to move to another area were the bamboo has not blossomed lately. Before it was no problem, but because of the human population growth, there are now large areas of forest cleared. To stop the destruction of the panda home, the Chinese government has now set up 33 nature reserves.

The panda is a very shy animal and that is the reason why it is sp difficult to breed in capture, it's very important that we keep protecting it in the wild. Baby pandas are born with almost no fur and it weighs about 100 - 160g at birth. The kid grows slowly and suckling its mother in 6 months. When the little panda is 1½ year, it has to take care of itself. At grown age, males can weigh up to 150kg and females weigh around 125kg. The giant pandas life expectancy is around 10 to 15 year but in capture they can live up to 20 years.

Many organizations have contributed with a lot of money to help these big mammals. In China there is a research centre that might be...