Panda: All you need to know about it

Since bamboo is being discussed, how can panda not be addressed next? Here it's come!   

Introduction

    The giant panda, Ailuropoda melanoleuca, or a panda bear, is a bearlike mammal that feeds bamboo in central China. Its bulky body with fluffy fur and round face with black and white coating on its eyes, ears and four limbs give it an attractive appearance that has won itself as one of the cutest animals around the world.

    Female giant pandas and male giant pandas are not much different in appearance, but male giant pandas normally come with heavier body weight and height, which can be more than 1.8 meters and over 100kg, however, female giant pandas are usually smaller. 

Fun Facts of Panda

   We know that giant panda eats bamboo a lot; they spend about 16 hours a day feeding. But is bamboo the only food for pandas? Giant Pandas are herbivores today, but back to 2 million years ago, their ancestors were still behaving like bears, hunting and taking meat as their primary food source. Scientists come up with a few explanations, gene mutations change their diet behaviour by depriving their umami taste, which is needed to savor meat. Besides, scientists believe that giant pandas' sluggish nature stopped their hunting activity and bamboo contains all the glucose and protein that is closer to a meat-based diet. Even though, after years of change, giant pandas have become herbivores, they still manage to digest meat; just the loss of taste to meat makes meat not tempting to them.

    Most of the solitary animals rely on scent to attract a mate or locate their own habitat, so as giant panda. The giant panda has a large scent gland located below the tail and surrounding the anus. Male giant pandas scrub the gland against trees, rocks or clumps of grass to leave some information such as sex, identity and possibly their social status, on the other hand, female giant pandas use it for signalling estrus. Female estrus usually happens annually during the last three days of spring and mating season from March to May, so fall birth season falls between August and October. The giant panda has 5 months between mate and fall birth, this is because it takes 3 months for implantation of fertilised ovum into the walls of uterus, which is a delay in implantation as other bears. It takes another 2 months for the development of a foetus. Newborn babies normally have 1/800 of the mothers' weight as the short growth phase before fall birth. Newborn babies are covered with all-white coats and blinds. They are helpless and rely on mother panda for warmth and positioning breastfeeding. The infant's eyes open at 45 days, first wobbly steps at 75-80 days, lives in a den for 100-120 days, eats bamboo by 14 months, and weans from its mother at 18-24 months. Pandas in captivity may live up to 30 years, while in the wild is around 20 years.

    According to the IUCN Red List, the giant panda was listed as endangered before, but since the listed of giant pandas as national animal and protection for giant pandas from China government, the population trend of giant pandas are increasing and listed as vulnerable, which is lower grade than endangered. Lastly, as pandas rely on bamboo, and bamboo can help humans in absorbing carbon dioxide, it is killing two birds with one stone for harvesting bamboo.

References

Lindburg, Donald G.. 2023, giant panda, Encyclopedia Britannica, viewed 19 October 2023, <https://www.britannica.com/animal/giant-panda>

Why Pandas Don't Eat Meat Anymore? ( 7 Things You Must Know!), BestofPanda, viewed 19 October 2023, <Why Pandas Don’t Eat Meat Anymore? (bestofpanda.com)>

Swaisgood, R., Wang, D. & Wei, F. 2016. Ailuropoda melanoleucaThe IUCN Red List of Threatened Species 2016: e.T712A121745669. Viewed on 19 October 2023.<https://dx.doi.org/10.2305/IUCN.UK.2016-2.RLTS.T712A45033386.en>