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Wild giant pandas are found only in southwestern China. They occupy 6 small forest fragments in the provinces of Sichuan, Gansu, and Shaanxi (5,400 square miles). They inhabit damp, misty forests of bamboo and conifers. Their preferred habitat has dense stands of at least one species of bamboo (preferably more). They are found at high altitudes (4,000 - 11,500 feet). They migrate higher in the summer, lower in the winter, preferring areas that are undisturbed by human activity and with access to clear mountain streams. Summers are cool with monsoon (torrential rains) occurring from June to October. Snow and hail are common in winter.
The panda is omnivorous. While bamboo represents 99% of their diet they have also been known to eat fish, pikas, rodents, vines, irises, crocus, mushrooms, and rice grass.
The panda assumes a sitting position to eat. Their unique forepaws have an enlarged wristbone that they can flex like a thumb. This allows them to direct bamboo stalks to their mouths where they strip off bites with their incisor teeth. Pandas digest about 20% of what they eat. (Cattle, for example,
digest 60% of their intake). To compensate for their low quality diet, pandas select only the most nutritious parts of the bamboo, they eat rapidly and they eat a lot. About 12 hours each day are spent feeding and they consume 12-15% of their body weight each day. During this time they consume between 23 and 36 pounds of bamboo shoots and leaves. They have been known to consume as much as 84 pounds of "new" bamboo shoots at one sitting. Special adaptations for digestion include large molars. Twenty-five species of bamboo are eaten by pandas in the wild. Captive pandas will eat only nine of these.
Only a few bamboo species are widespread at the high altitudes pandas now inhabit: Fargesia spathacea, Sinarundinaria chungii, Sinarundinaria nitida, and Sinarundinaria fangiana. Bamboo leaves contain the highest protein levels, stems have less. Because of the synchronous flowering, death and regeneration of all bamboo species, pandas must have a least 2 different species available in their range to avoid starvation. Throughout most of the year pandas have a water imbalance because their feces eliminate more water than the food brings in. They usually drink at least once each day.
Weight: 165-353 pounds
Body Length: 4-5 feet
Tail: 5 inches
Males are slightly larger than females. They have stronger forelegs, wider muzzles, and are 10-20% heavier.
They have stout, powerful limbs. Their hind feet lack a heel pad.
They have scent glands positioned under the tail.
Their head is relatively massive with well developed chewing muscles. Unlike other bears they have well-developed premolars. Their molars are broad and flat and adapted to chewing bamboo. Their digestive system is typical of a carnivore; only slightly adapted for processing bamboo: tough esophageal lining, pyloric region of stomach thick and muscular, small intestine shortened, colon surface area enlarged.
Male genitalia is similar to red panda.
Vision is poor. Their pupils have a vertical slit like many nocturnal animals.
Sense of smell is very good.
Coat is thick and wooly. It is white with black eye patches, ears, legs, band across shoulders and sometimes tip of tail. Fur is slightly oily preventing water penetration. Their striking coloration is thought to be an important signal to other pandas (they avoid contact and have poor vision). Brown-and-white pandas exist but are extremely rare.
China has always revered the panda and in 1957 the first efforts were taken to protect it. They established the first panda reserves in 1963. Currently there are 13 reserves in 6 remaining forest fragments.
In 1986 the American Zoo and Aquarium Association issued guidelines for short-term loans to ensure that pandas were not being removed from breeding programs in China or recently taken from the wild.
In 1987, The Giant Panda Task Force was established by the American Zoo and Aquarium Association to collaborate with the US Fish and Wildlife Department, the IUCN and the Chinese Government. It established a research and propagation program with the Chinese Association of Zoological Gardens, the Chinese Forest Ministry and Institutional holders of giant pandas.
In 1989 the "National Conservation Management Plan for the Giant Panda and its Habitat" was formulated by the Chinese Ministry of Forestry and the World Wildlife Fund. It provided for:
Reduction of human activities in panda habitat (removal of human settlements, modification of forestry operations, control of poaching).
Management of bamboo habitat.
Extension of the panda reserve system.
Outbreeding between panda populations (establishing forest/bamboo corridors to link separate population units, introduction of captive-born young to existing wild populations.
Maintenance of a captive population.
In 1992 the first "Giant Panda Studbook" was completed to assist in breeding programs.
In 1993 the AZA "Giant Panda Conservation Action Plan" was completed. A consortium of 28 zoos formed to share in research and study of future panda loans.
1996 marks the beginning of a twelve year giant panda loan agreement between the San Diego Zoo and the People's Republic of China. The Zoological Society of San Diego will contribute $1,000,000 annually to further the cause of wild panda habitat protection. Funds will specifically go to 3 of China's nature reserves in Sichuan Province: Wujiao, Baodinggou, and Yele. In addition, behaviorists, endocrinologists, reproductive physiologists, geneticists and others at the Zoological Society's Center for Reproduction of Endangered Species will begin in-depth studies of panda behavior and reproductive biology.
