Each panda has markings that are slightly different from any another panda. There is also a rare brown and white variation of the giant panda. Are giant pandas bears? For years scientists have wondered whether pandas are a type of bear, raccoon, or something all their own. Giant pandas are similar to other bears in their general looks, the way they walk and climb, their skull characteristics, and, importantly, their social system and reproductive biology.
It's necessary to know that pandas are bears, because the more we know about pandas, the better we can help them reproduce and survive. Pandas are arguably the most vocal of all the bears. Pandas don't roar the way you think of a brown bear roaring.
Other vocalizations include honks, huffs, barks, and growls. Young cubs are known to croak and squeal. There are other ways pandas communicate, too. Both male and female pandas have a scent gland underneath their short tail that secretes a waxy substance used to leave scent marks. Pandas scent mark trees, rocks, bamboo, and bushes. The scent is pretty strong. Human noses can smell the stinky, waxy scent mark from about a foot away, but pandas are more sensitive to smell, so to them it's even stronger!
Another panda can detect the sex, age, reproductive condition, social status, and even individual identity of the scent maker—as well as how long that scent has been there. It seems that pandas are most interested in higher-placed scent marks; the panda with the highest scent mark is obviously the biggest—or at least the tallest—panda. Giant pandas live in the mountains of southwestern China, in damp, misty forests, mostly at elevations between 4, and 11, feet 1, to 3, meters.
They need old-growth conifer forests with at least two types of bamboo and water access. These old-growth forests provide old, hollow logs and tree stumps large enough for panda dens.
Like other bears, pandas spend most of the day eating and sleeping. Bamboo is the most important plant for giant pandas. They spend at least 12 hours each day eating bamboo. Because bamboo is so low in nutrients, pandas eat a lot of it daily. Pandas use their teeth to peel off the tough outer layers to reveal the soft inner tissue of the stalk. Strong jawbones and cheek muscles help pandas crush and chew the thick stalks with their flattened back teeth. Bamboo leaves are also on the menu, as pandas strip them off the stalks, wad them up, and eat them.
Giant pandas have also been known to eat grasses, bulbs, fruits, some insects, and even rodents and carrion—pretty much whatever they can find. At the Zoo, pandas eat bamboo, carrots, yams, apples, and special biscuits designed for leaf-eating wildlife called leafeater biscuits that are made of grain and packed with all the vitamins and minerals pandas need. Pandas are always associated with bamboo, but they need more than just bamboo to make a home.
San Diego Zoo conservation scientists have found that suitable panda habitat requires old-growth conifer forests with at least two types of bamboo and water access.
Why is old-growth forest habitat important for pandas? It provides old, hollow logs and tree stumps large enough for panda dens, and it also provides shelter and nutrients for the bamboo growing there. In areas where bamboo is not plentiful, the home range may be larger. Like other bears, they spend most of the day eating and sleeping.
There are two exceptions to this less-than-welcoming attitude: the very brief mating season and mothers with cubs. Although pandas are generally solitary as adults, they are exposed to the scents of other neighboring pandas that have crossed over their path days or weeks before.
If a female is starting her estrus soon, it makes sense that she would need to advertise her status to any males that might be in the area.
She scent marks, and a male that comes across her scent a few days later can recognize the change in her status via that scent mark. Our conservation work in Wolong has confirmed that males are more interested in scent from a female who was known to be in estrus at the time she left the scent. This is important, as there is only a two- to three-day period that the female is receptive to breeding.
When she is no longer receptive, the male moves on to find another willing female. He does not help raise any cubs born. Pandas have a slow reproductive rate: mature females usually breed just once every two or three years. In their native habitat, a typical female panda may bear about five litters in her lifetime. Giant pandas are only about the size of a stick of butter at birth, and they're hairless and helpless.
The panda mother gives great care to her tiny cub, usually cradling it in one paw and holding it close to her chest. For several days after birth, the mother does not leave the den, not even to eat or drink! The cub's eyes open at 50 to 60 days of age, and by 10 weeks the cub begins to crawl. Cubs will stay with their mothers for about two years. Therefore females only reproduce every other year or less. Many zoos have tried to breed Giant Pandas but with limited success.
The breeding centers in China use both natural mating and artificial insemination and have become much more successful in the past few years. Like all bears, Giant Panda babies are called cubs. Newborn cubs weigh 4 to 8 ounces and are about 6 to 8 inches long, about the size of a stick of butter.
They are born pink, with almost no hair, and blind. At about 1 week they begin to develop their distinctive black and white markings and at about 5 to 7 weeks, they start to open their eyes. The mother holds the cub to her chest, much like a human mother. In size, compared to their mothers, panda cubs are some of the smallest newborns. In the wild, Giant Pandas nest in hollow tree trunks or caves.
In captivity, they are then raised by caretakers using incubators in the nurseries at the Giant Panda Reserves or Zoos. At the Giant Panda Reserves, the caretakers in the nursery leave one cub with the mother for her to care for and place one in the nursery in an incubator. In the nursery, the staff will hand feed the cub and stay with it 24 hours a day, every day. The mother accepts both babies, but only one at a time.
This process of exchanging the cubs, which was developed at the Wolong Panda Center, allows both of the cubs to survive in captivity. Older Giant pandas spend most of their time eating or sleeping. Younger ones like to play. They play with other Giant Pandas, running, chasing each other, climbing trees, and tumbling on the ground.
They are well suited to their environment. They can swim in the mountain streams and enjoy the winter snow. Today the Giant Panda is limited to the mountains in a few Chinese provinces in southwestern China. Their range is along the eastern rim of the Tibetan Plateau. Giant Pandas do not have a permanent den and do not hibernate. In the winter they will seek shelter in hollow trees.
Giant Pandas typically have a range of km but can travel up to 10 km a day looking for food, water, and shelter. The Giant Panda has lived for centuries in coniferous forests with dense undergrowth of bamboo at elevations of 5, to 11, feet. Rain or dense mist throughout the year shrouds these remote forests in heavy clouds. In the winter snow is common. Today, these forests are under attack by dramatic increases in human population.
Agriculture, ranching, logging, trapping, and human settlement dramatically threaten their habitat. Previously, they lived at lower elevations but farming and clearing of the forest have pushed them higher into the mountains. Bamboo grows under the shade cover of the large fir trees.
Logging and clearing the land for agricultural uses is a major factor in the reduction of bamboo. The impact of rapid population growth has seen the destruction of significant Giant Panda habitat. In an effort to defend the Giant Panda, the Chinese government enforces a logging ban in the Giant Panda reserves. The 8. In the s, the Chinese government began conservation efforts to protect pandas. In the first panda reserve was established in southern China.
Pandas were classified as an endangered species in the s. Today there are 40 Giant Panda reserves in China. These reserves need to be connected via corridors in order to reduce isolation and fragmentation of the Giant Panda population. Villages and human activities now block open ranges for migration. The fragmentation of Giant Panda areas is a major problem affecting mating.
Another problem related to the fragmentation of the Giant Panda areas is that the bamboo will flower and then die off about every 20 years. When this occurs the Giant Pandas need to migrate to a new area. There have been reports of Giant Pandas starving when they are unable to find bamboo in new areas. The May 12th earthquake epicenter was just a few miles from the Wolong Panda Center. Aftershocks continued for days. In one 24 hour period aftershocks were monitored in the quake zone.
There were approximately 70, deaths from the quake, 20, missing and , injured. Five staff members of the Wolong Nature Reserve were killed. One Giant Panda, Mao Mao was killed by the collapse of the exterior wall in her enclosure.
Wild Giant Pandas certainly died as a result of the earthquake but no estimates as to the number are available. Several Giant Pandas came down from the mountains in search of food. One wild Giant Panda has starved due to the destruction of the bamboo. The consequences of the devastation to the bamboo as a result of the earthquake will continue for many years. A study in by the Chinese Department of Forestry estimated the current population of the wild Giant Pandas at approximately 1, As of there are approximately giant pandas in captivity.
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