Giant Panda
Ailuropoda melanoleuca – Adopted as the emblem of the Worldwide Fund for Nature and popular the world over, the giant panda has come to symbolize endangered animals and efforts to save them. The giant panda is probably one of the most distinctive and instantly recognizable animals in the world, yet probably fewer than 100 have ever been seen alive outside China. Traditionally, pandas were associated with magical properties. As a result, they have been killed for their skins and body parts.
Many have also been caught accidentally in snares set for the valuable musk deer. Pandas breed very slowly: Females are fertile for only two to three days in the year. The young take over a year to reach independence and do not breed until they are at least five years old. The giant panda is found in cool, damp, mountain bamboo forests. An individual may spend most of its time within a single square mile of a valley or mountain ridge in which it must find all the food it needs. The animals are specialized feeders. Although they will eat roots and even mice, their main diet is bamboo. Since bamboo is not very nutritious, the panda needs a great deal of it and must spend 10 hours a day feeding. It has a bony extension of the wrist-a kind of thumb-that helps it grip bamboo shoots firmly.
By the time winter arrives, supplies of bamboo in the panda’s territory are running out. As temperatures drop, the animals need even more food to maintain their body heat, so they move to lower altitudes in search of more abundant growth. Such a migration is possible only so long as the main areas of panda habitat are intact. However, at lower altitudes mountain forests are being increasingly carved up for farmland; logging is also destroying the panda’s forest habitat. Sichuan Province, the panda’s main home, has lost a third of its forest in 30 years, leaving the animals isolated in small, inaccessible patches. Another problem for the giant panda is the increase in human population and settlement in lowland areas: The animals are left stranded at higher elevations. The giant panda, with its stubby tail and distinctive black-and-white markings, has always been popular in zoos. Captive-breeding attempts have attracted media attention, and the species probably owes its survival to its high profile.
Threats and Solutions
The contraction of bamboo habitat presents a serious threat to the giant panda. The situation is made worse by the bamboo’s peculiar habit of flowering every so often and then dying, a phenomenon that appears to be on the increase as a result of long-term climate change. It takes several years for a new crop to grow. Periodically, the panda’s main food supply simply dies out over large areas. In the 1970s, when three species of bamboo flowered at once and then died, over 100 pandas (more than a tenth of the entire population) are known to have starved to death. Nowadays the population is fairly stable, although perilously small and fragmented. Attempts at captive breeding have not been very successful; a few young have been born, but their survival rate is low. Protection of the species and its habitat appears to be the most effective way to save the giant panda from extinction. Special sanctuaries have now been created, and the animal is well protected under Chinese law.
GIANT PANDA
Giant panda Ailuropoda melanoleuca
- Family: Ursidae (sometimes considered one of the Procyonidae, or assigned its own family, the Ailuridae)
- World population: About 1,000
- Distribution: Central provinces of China
- Habitat: Mountain bamboo forests up to 12,800 ft (3,900 m) above sea level
- Size: Length head/body: 4-5 ft (1.2-1.5 m); tail: about 5 in (12-13 cm); height at shoulder: about 24 in (60 cm). Weight: 165-350 lb (75-160 kg)
- Form: Stocky, bearlike animal with creamy-white fur; black legs, shoulders, ears, eye patches, and nose
- Diet: Mainly bamboo; also bulbs and other plant materials; occasionally fish and small animals
- Breeding: Up to 3 young born at a time, but normally only 1 is reared successfully. Pandas take more than 5 years to reach maturity and may not breed every year. Life span in captivity up to 34 years, probably much less in the wild
- Related endangered species: Lesser panda (Ailurus fulgens)
Related Posts
- Japanese Giant Salamander
- Mountain Gorilla
- Giant Gippsland Earthworm
- Animal Life From China
- Animal life ( from East African mountains )
