Giant Panda

Giant Panda

Eric Niu & Wandi Wang

The giant panda, a black-and-white bear, has a body typical of bear.

About the size of an American black bear, giant panda stand between two and three feet tall at the shoulder(on all four legs), and reach four to six feet long.

MALES: about 250 pounds

FEMALES: about 220 pounds

Sources

Adaptations

pandas have elongated and enlarged wrist bone covered with a fleshy pad of skin which forms a "pseudo thumb" that there interesting bears use for grasping bamboo stems.

Smith sonian National Zoological Park. (n.p.). Giant panda. Retreved from http://nationalzoo.si.edu/animals/giantpandas/pandafacts/

Common name: Panda

Scientific name: Giant Panda

Role in the ecosystem

Panda lives in Temperate broad-leaf deciduous forest with a dense understory of bamboo, at elevations between 5000 to 10000 feet.

Adult pandas have very few natural enemies:

jackals,

leopards,

yellow-throated marten

Pandas live mainly in bamboo forests high in the mountains of western China. Bamboo is their food. Pandas must eat 12-38kg every day to meet their energy needs, because bamboo contains very little nutritional value.

The temperate broad-leaf Deciduous forest occurs in eastern U.S., Canada, Europe, China, and Japan.

Edinburghzoo (n.p.). Reproduction of Giant Pandas. Retrieved from http://www.edinburghzoo.org.uk/about/FAQs/GiantPandas/GiantPandaReproduction.html

Panda is a

herbivore

bamboo

Campbell, N. (n.d.). Habitat of the Giant Panda. Retrieved from http://www.ehow.com/about_5434570_habitat-giant-panda.html.

giant panda

yellow throated martain

grass

hare

jackal

Pandas' habitat was changing smaller during last 100 years. They once lived in lowland areas, but farming, forest cleaning and other development move giant panda to the mountains.

Hamlyn, P 1967. Larousse encyclopedia of animal life. Italy. Paul Hamlyn Linzited

By 2004, there were estimated to be 1600 pandas alive in the world, this is the highest population size as humans start to protect pandas.

Main threats to giant pandas are:

Road construction

Dam and hydropower facilities

Mining

Mass tourism

Unsustainable forest practices

Climate change and extreme natural disasters

Solutions in theses areas include:

increasing nature reserves,

creating green corridors to link isolated pandas,

patrolling against poaching and illegal logging,

building local capacities for nature reserve management, and

continued research and monitoring.

According to china.org,

"in order to put the protection of giant pandas and other wildlife under the law, the Chinese government put the protection of rare animals and plants into the Constitution. A set of laws, like the Forest Law, the Law on the Protection of Wildlife, The Environmental Protection Law have been made and passed."

My idea to protect giant panda is to let more people to understand that we need to protect Giant Panda. For example, making flyers and posters.

Reproduction

Female giant pandas get ready for produce once a year, for 2-4 days on average.

Giant Panda provide great value to humans. According to wwf.panda.org, "by mobilizing people to save the panda, we are actually helping preserve the rich biodiversity - plants, landscapes, other animals - that need to be there in order for the pandas to survive." Giant Panda attracts visitors, which benefits the economy. Many people would pay to watch Giant Panda, some of them even travel overseas to have a look of Giant Panda. Beside all the natural values, Giant Panda is an important cultural icon to Chinese people.

Gestation period of the giant panda is 5 months in average. Generally, one or two cubs are born. Triplets are rare. After birth, parents have to take care of cubs for two monthes.