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 or 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 ago),
when their geographic range extended
throughout southern China. Fossil remains
also have been found in present-day
Burma.
Giant pandas are bear-like in shape 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 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 ten to 16
hours a day feeding.
The giant panda reaches breeding maturity
between four and ten years of age. Mating
usually takes place in the spring, and
three to five months later, one or two cubs
weighing three to five ounces each are born
in a sheltered den. Usually only one cub
survives. The eyes open at 11⁄2 to two
months and the cub becomes mobile at
approximately three months of age. At
twelve months the cub becomes totally
independent. While their average life span
in the wild is about fifteen 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
Giant panda
Ailuropoda melanoleuca
Giant pandas are
bear-like in shape
with black ears, eye
patches, legs and
shoulder bands, and
whitish coloring on
the rest of the body.
U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service
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, 124
giant pandas are found in Chinese zoos.
Only about 20 giant pandas live in zoos
outside of China. In 1980, the first giant
panda birth outside China occurred at the
Mexico City Zoo.
Until recently, Washington, D.C.’s National
Zoo housed Ling-Ling and Hsing-Hsing,
perhaps the most well-known giant pandas
in North America. A gift from the People’s
Republic of China to the people of the
United States, they were presented as a
gesture of amity and goodwill to President
Richard Nixon when he visited China in
1972. Ling-Ling, at age 23, died in
December 1992.
Giant pandas are among the rarest
mammals in the world—there are probably
fewer than 1,000 left in the wild. Although
adult giant pandas have few natural
enemies, the young are sometimes 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 eleven nature
preserves where bamboo flourishes and
giant pandas are known to live.
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 severe penalties for those convicted
of poaching giant pandas.
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
of 1973. Endangered means a species is
considered in danger of extinction
throughout all or a significant portion of
its range. The less dire designation of
threatened means that a species is likely
to become endangered in the foreseeable
future. 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 that monitors
and controls international 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 inform the public about what is required
to qualify for giant panda importation
permits. The policy focuses on the
conservation of the species in the wild.
The giant panda has unique front paws.
One of the wrist bones is enlarged and
elongated and is used like a thumb, enabling
the panda to grasp bamboo stalks.
Fewer than 1,000 giant pandas remain in
the wild, making it one of the world’s rarest
mammals. Habitat encroachment and
destruction as well as illegal killing are the
main causes of the giant panda’s decline.
U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service
1 800/344 WILD
http://www.fws.gov
June 1999
Giant pandas eat 20 to 40 pounds of food
each day, mostly bamboo, and spend ten to
16 hours a day feeding.
