Mary Allen
When we talk about pandas, we usually mean the giant panda or the panda bear. It used to be called the bamboo bear or paw bear. He is a mammal of the bear family. There is also the little panda, which is also called “cat bear”.
The panda stands out because of its black and white fur. It is over a meter long from nose to bottom. His tail is just a small stub. It weighs around 80 to 160 kilograms. That’s about as heavy as one or two grown men.
The pandas only live in a very small part of China. Therefore they are endemic. An endemic is an animal or plant that lives only in a specific area.
There are not even 2,000 of them left in the wild. You are strictly protected. That is why they have been able to multiply somewhat in recent years. So that the panda does not become extinct, it is bred in many zoos.
Pandas sleep in caves or crevices during the day. They wake up at night looking for their food. They mainly eat bamboo leaves, but also other plants, caterpillars, and small vertebrates. At the zoo, they also get used to honey, eggs, fish, fruit, melons, bananas, or sweet potatoes. They sit down to eat like humans.
Pandas are loners. Only in spring do they meet to mate. Then the male runs away again. The mother carries her young animals in her stomach for just under two months. Then one to three young is born. Each weighs about 100 grams, like a bar of chocolate. But the mother is only raising one of them.
The young nurse’s milk from the mother for about eight months. A little earlier, however, it also eats leaves. The cub leaves its mother at the age of one and a half years. However, it is only sexually mature at around five to seven years of age. Only then can it make young. A panda usually lives to be around 20 years old.