Giant Panda

Giant Panda - Introduction

The giant panda is the rarest member of the bear family and among the world's most threatened animals. It is a black-white animal which has round head, small black ears and white faces. It also has a black patch around each eye and short tail.

The giant panda lives in a few mountain ranges in central China, mainly in Sichuan province, but also in the Shaanxi and Gansu provinces. Due to farming, deforestation and other development, the panda has been driven out of the lowland areas where it once lived.

Giant Panda - Feeding

Although they appear to have been meat-eating at some point during their evolution, they adapted to eating only plants - and only bamboo - but retain a solitary nature unlike other herbivores. They keep a small territory and don't wander too far. They also don't have rigid schedules, eating, sleeping and playing whenever and wherever the mood strikes them.

Pandas love water and make their homes near a water source. Pandas sometimes over-drink and act drunk making it even more beloved by the Chinese people as legends surround why the panda does this.

Something Interesting about Giant Panda

Playful Pandas

Pandas are playful and not aggressive. Mountain dwellers have reported them mischievously getting into their homes and playing with kitchen pots and pans and then discarding them in the woods later on. They've also been known to befriend domestic animals such as a sheep or pig and sleep and eat together with them.

Shy Miss Panda

Chinese people nickname the Panda "Miss Panda" since they often exhibit shy, even coy, behavior such as covering its face with a paw or ducking its head when confronted by a stranger.