U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service
What animal is black and white and loved
all over the world? If you guessed the
giant panda, you’re right! The giant
panda is also known as the panda bear,
bamboo bear, or in Chinese as
Daxiongmao, the ���large bear cat.” In
fact, its scientific name means “black and
white cat-footed animal.”
Giant pandas are found only in the
mountains of central China—in small
isolated areas of the north and central
portions of the Sichuan Province, in the
mountains bordering the southernmost
part of Gansu Province and in the Qinling
Mountains of the Shaanxi Province.
Giant pandas live in dense bamboo and
coniferous forests at altitudes of 5,000 to
10,000 feet. The mountains are shrouded
in heavy clouds with torrential rains or
dense mist throughout the year.
Giant pandas have existed since the
Pleistocene Era (about 600,000 years
Giant Panda Facts
(Ailuropoda melanoleuca)
ago), when their geographic range
extended throughout southern China.
Fossil remains also have been found in
present-day Burma.
Giant pandas are bears with striking
black and white markings. The ears, eye
patches, legs and shoulder band are
black; the rest of the body is whitish.
They have thick, woolly coats to insulate
them from the cold. Adults are four to
six feet long and may weigh up to 350
pounds—about the same size as the
American black bear. However, unlike
the black bear, giant pandas do not
hibernate and cannot walk on their hind
legs.
The giant panda has unique front paws—
one of the wrist bones is enlarged and
elongated and is used like a thumb,
enabling the giant panda to grasp stalks
of bamboo. They also have very powerful
jaws and teeth to crush bamboo. While
bamboo stalks and roots make up about
Chengdu Breeding Center, China
Mike Carpenter
95 percent of its diet, the giant panda also
feeds on gentians, irises, crocuses, fish,
and occasionally small rodents. It must
eat 20 to 40 pounds of food each day to
survive, and spends 10 to 16 hours a day
feeding.
The giant panda reaches breeding
maturity between 4 and 10 years of age.
Mating usually takes place in the spring,
and 3 to 5 months later, one or two cubs
weighing 3 to 5 ounces each is born in a
sheltered den. Usually only one cub
survives. The eyes open at 1 1/2 to 2
months and the cub becomes mobile at
approximately three months of age. At 12
months the cub becomes totally indepen-dent.
While their average life span in the
wild is about 15 years, giant pandas in
captivity have been known to live well
into their twenties.
Scientists have debated for more than a
century whether giant pandas belong to
the bear family, the raccoon family or a
separate family of their own. This is
because the giant panda and its cousin,
the lesser or red panda, share many
characteristics with both bears and
raccoons. Recent DNA analysis indicates
that giant pandas are more closely
related to bears and red pandas are more
closely related to raccoons. Accordingly,
giant pandas are categorized in the bear
family while red pandas are categorized
in the raccoon family.
In 1869, a French missionary and
naturalist named Pere Armand David
was the first European to describe the
giant panda. In 1936, clothing designer
Ruth Harkness brought the first live
giant panda, named Su-Lin, out of China
and to the West. Su-Lin lived at Chicago’s
Brookfield Zoo and was a celebrity until
he died in 1938. Today, 130 -150 giant
pandas are found in Chinese zoos,
reserves, and breeding centers. Only
about 26 giant pandas live in zoos outside
of China. In 1980, the first giant panda
birth outside China occurred at the
Mexico City Zoo.
Giant pandas are among the rarest
mammals in the world—there are
probably about 1,000 left in the wild.
Although adult giant pandas have few
natural enemies, the young are some-times
preyed upon by leopards.
Habitat encroachment and destruction
are the greatest threats to the continued
existence of the giant panda. This is
mainly because of the demand for land
and natural resources by China’s 1 billion
inhabitants. To offset this situation, the
Chinese government has set aside more
than 30 nature reserves where bamboo
flourishes and giant pandas are thought
to live. The government has also placed a
moratorium on logging in panda habitat
through 2010.
Giant pandas are also susceptible to
poaching, or illegal killing, as their dense
fur carries a high price in illegal markets
in the Far East. The Chinese government
has imposed life sentences for those
convicted of poaching giant pandas.
Recent sentences however, have been
much less.
The low reproductive capacity of the
giant panda makes it more vulnerable to
these threats, and less capable of
rebounding from its low numbers.
In 1984, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife
Service listed the giant panda as an
endangered species under the
Endangered Species Act. Endangered
means a species is considered in danger
of extinction throughout all or a
significant portion of its range. This
protection also prohibits giant pandas
from being imported into the United
States except under certain conditions.
The giant panda is also protected under
the Convention on International Trade in
Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and
Flora (CITES), a treaty among more
than 160 nations aimed at controlling
illegal trade in endangered animal and
plant species. The Fish and Wildlife
Service is the federal agency responsible
for the U.S. government’s
implementation of CITES.
The Service has established a panda
policy to assist zoos applying for giant
panda importation permits. The policy
focuses on the conservation of the species
in the wild.
Giant pandas are currently housed in
four U.S. zoos under panda policy
permits—San Diego, Atlanta, National,
and Memphis.
U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service
International Affairs
Division of Management Authority
4401 N. Fairfax Drive, Room 700
Arlington, VA 22203
703/358-2104 or 800/358-2104
Fax 703/358-2281
e-mail: managementauthority@fws.gov
http://international.fws.gov
http://permits.fws.gov
Fall 2003
