Mary Allen
Although they are mighty bears, they look cuddling: With their attached ears, thick fur, and chubby shape, panda bears are reminiscent of giant teddies.
Characteristics
What do giant pandas look like?
The giant panda, also known simply as the panda bear, belongs to the bear family and is, therefore, a predator. Adult animals are 120 to 150 centimeters long and weigh between 75 and 160 kilograms. Like bears, the tail is just a five-inch stub.
Pandas have the typical shape of a bear, but appear a bit chubby than their relatives. However, their wiry fur is colored differently than other bears and has striking markings: the body is white, ears, hind legs, front legs and a band that runs from the chest to the shoulders are black. The area around the eyes and the tip of the tail are also colored black. With increasing age, the white parts of the fur become yellowish.
The head shape is also unmistakable: its head is much wider than that of other bears. This is due to a broader skull due to the very strong masticatory muscles. A very special feature is the so-called pseudo-thumb: It sits like a sixth finger on each hand and consists of an extended bone of the wrist. Their teeth are also unusual: pandas have the largest grinding teeth of all predators – an adaptation to their food.
Where do giant pandas live?
Panda bears used to be much more widespread, found from Burma to eastern China and Vietnam. Today, the giant panda only lives in a very small area of almost 6000 square kilometers in western China. The climate there is relatively cool in summer and cold in winter, and it is very humid all year round. The giant panda lives in the subtropical mountains of its homeland. Dense forests thrive here, in which mainly bamboo, their preferred food, grows. In summer, the animals stay at altitudes of 2700 to 4000 meters, in winter they migrate to lower regions at an altitude of 800 meters.
How old do giant pandas get?
How old giant pandas can get in nature is not exactly known. A giant panda turned 34 at the San Diego Zoo.
Behave
How do giant pandas live?
Although the animals are quite large, they were discovered late by European researchers. A trace of the quiet, shy inhabitants of the bamboo forests first caught the eye of the French Jesuit priest and researcher Armand David in 1869, when he saw a strikingly patterned fur blanket at the court of the Emperor of China: It was the fur of a giant panda.
It was only around 50 years later that the German biologist Hugo Weigold saw a living panda bear during an expedition to China. And another 20 years later, the first panda came to New York, and even later to Europe. Giant pandas live mostly on the ground. However, they can also climb quite well on low or medium-high branches. They are also good swimmers. They are mostly active in the twilight and at night, during the day they retire to their sleeping cave padded with leaves.
The animals are real loners. Each bear inhabits a territory of up to six square kilometers, which it marks with a substance made from special scent glands. The females in particular are strict territory owners: they do not tolerate any other females in a 30 to the 40-hectare core area of their territory, but drive them away without exception. The males are somewhat more tolerant towards conspecifics, but they also prefer to avoid each other.
In their territory, the animals create real hiking trails that they use again and again to get from their sleeping places to the feeding places. Giant pandas are quite contemplative fellows: Their food is very poor in nutrients and difficult to digest, which is why they spend around 14 hours a day eating.
Because they – unlike the other bears – cannot stand up on their hind legs, they sit on their buttocks and grab the bamboo with their front paws. They hold the shoots with their pseudo-thumbs and skilfully strip the leaves from the branches. After their hearty meals, they like to lean against tree trunks to rest and take a digestive nap.
Friends and foes of the giant panda
In the wild, giant pandas have few enemies. In the past, however, they were hunted by humans because of their beautiful fur.
How do giant pandas reproduce?
During the mating season from March to May, the giant pandas become a bit more sociable: several males often fight for a female. Serious injuries rarely occur. Whoever wins the fight and the coveted female can eventually mate with the female.
However, as with other bears, the fertilized egg does not implant itself in the uterus until 45 to 120 days after mating. Only in August or September does a panda bear give birth to one or two cubs. Usually, only one cub is raised by the mother.
Panda babies are really tiny: they weigh just 90 to 130 grams, their fur is white and still quite sparse. In contrast to the adult animals, they still have a fairly long tail. The little ones are still completely helpless and dependent on their mother.
After four weeks they show the typical fur markings and only after 40 to 60 days do they open their eyes. They start eating solid food at about five months and only stop nursing from their mother when they are eight or nine months old. Panda bears do not become independent until they are one and a half years old and then leave their mother. They are sexually mature when they are five to seven years old.
How do giant pandas communicate?
Giant pandas let out a dull roar – but only rarely, and when they do, then mostly during the mating season.