Panda Facts
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Other Endangered Animals

Those creatures lovingly called "Pandas." What are they like, and where do they live? We've hunted down some information and gathered that together for you on this page. Hopefully, what we've found will both serve as a benefit to you, and also help you to experience, in your mind, what it's like to live the life of a panda.

A Panda begins it's day at a high altitude. Usually they are found between 4,000 and 11,500 feet. The primary activity of the solitary Panda is . . . eating. We say solitary because, generally, the only time Pandas come close to each other is to mate. Otherwise, they're content to spend there time, high amongst the tree tops, eating their bamboo and just lounging around.

They inhabit their food, literaly. Amongst the damp and misty forest stands of bamboo and conifers they reside. They prefer to be around many different kinds of bamboo, but generally they settle for just one if a vareity is unavailable.

There's six small forest fragments they inhabit. They're located in the provinces of Sichuan, Gansu, and Shaanxi. They total about 5,400 square miles.

They prefer the higher altitudes during the summer when the torrential rain storms occur between June and October, in order to stay cooler. However, when winter comes, you can find them creeping back into the lower areas accompanied by snow and hail.

One reason for the Panda's choice in climate is their bodily characteristics. They can weight anywhere between 165 to 353 pounds! When you consider that they are only four to five feet in length, you can imagine the mass which they're carrying around.

Some people don't ever notice this, but they actually have a tail. Really, it's about 5 inches long, almost so short that you'd never notice.

Male Pandas tend to be larger then their female counterparts. Usually they're ten to twenty percent heavier with stronger forelegs and wider muzzles. Although, to the casual observer, you'd probably never even notice the difference.

Pandas tend to not have very strong eyesight. With verticle slits for pupils, they tend to take after nocturnal animals in this fashion. A heigtened since of smell is also relevant to nocturnal species. The beautiful coloration which is characteristic of the Giant Pandas is thought to the an important signal to other Pandas. Due to their poor vision, the coloration helps them to stand out to each other so as to help them to avoid contact with each other. There are brown and white Pandas, but these animals are extremely rare.

Pandas are omnivorous. This means that they can eat either animals or plants. True, 99% of their diet does contain bamboo. It has been known that Pandas sometimes will eat fish, pikas, vines, irises, mushrooms, rice grass, and even rodents on occasion.

Like people, Pandas will assume a sitting position when they eat. With an enlarged wristbone, they manipulate it like a thumb. This amazing ability enables them to direct bamboo stalks to their mouths where they strip off bites with their incisor teeth.

About 12 hours a day they'll spend eating when they will consume about twelve to fifteen percent of their body weight. This amounts to about twenty three to thirty six pounds of bamboo shoots and leaves. However, they only will digest about twenty percent of what they eat; cows on the other hand, digest about sixty percent. In order to compensate for their low quality diet, a Panda will only select the most nutritious parts of the bamboo. A Panda eats rapidly (sometimes up to 84 shoots in one sitting), and it will eat a lot!

An interesting comparison between a captive Panda and a wild Panda: a Panda in captivity eats about nine different species of bamboo, while it's wild counterparts will eat about twenty-five different species.

Due to the Panda's habitat, synchronous flowering, death and regeneration of bamboo species, a Panda must have at least two different species in it's proximity in order to avoid starvation.

For any questions about this site, please contact OpenSky Computers or email the Site Administrator. Site last updated: 10/08/98 11:21:49 AM