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42 Interesting Panda Facts You Would Want to Know
1. What food do giant pandas normally eat?
The panda eats bamboo. There are many kinds of bamboos that giant pandas like to eat. According to statistics, there are nearly 60 kinds of bamboos that giant pandas like to eat, and about 27 of them are the favorite of giant pandas.
They are Phyllostachys bissetii, Fargesia robusta, Bashania fangiana, Indocalamus tessellatus, Chimonobambusa pachystachys, Bashania fargesii, Pleioblastus amarus, Chimonobambusa szechuanensis, etc.
2. Why do pandas eat bamboo？
The reason why bamboo is chosen is that there are few species that feed on bamboo and the competition is not intense. At the same time, the adaptability of bamboo is strong, the growth rate of them is fast, and it is not afraid to be eaten.
3. Are pandas carnivores or herbivores?
They are carnivores.
4. Do pandas eat meat?
Absolutely yes! At the very beginning, the pandas did not eat bamboo. The change occurred at the end of the last glacial period when the preys of the giant pandas were almost extinct. In order to survive, giant pandas have to change their diet to adapt to this change.
In the long-term adaptation to the environment, the main food of giant pandas has changed from meat to bamboo, and their caries has become particularly broad, which are suitable for grinding bamboo fibers. But they also eat meat if they have the chance..
5. Do pandas eat fish?
The answer is an unbelievable yes!
The giant panda is an omnivorous animal and now has canine teeth, so he also eats small animals, including fish. The giant panda evolves to eat bamboo as the main food because there is no fish or too little in the place where it lives, so it is not used to it!
6. How do pandas eat bamboo?
When eating, the pandas will smell the bamboo pile first, and select those that suit their own minds by their claws or mouth. When the sense of smell is wrong, it is visually confirmed. If it is not satisfied, they will drop them and choose again.
And then they remove the dirt and dry parts of the bamboo leaves, and some even use the mouth to wet the bamboo leaves. Here they will sit down and prepare to eat.
7. How much bamboo do pandas eat?
An adult giant panda weighing 100 kilograms spends 12-16 hours a day, eating 10-18 kilograms of bamboo leaves and bamboo stalks, or 30-38 kilograms of fresh bamboo shoots while discharging more than 10 kilograms of feces to maintain metabolic balance.
But because bamboo is a very low-energy food and the panda’s intestines are relatively short, constantly eating, the giant panda is basically eating all day long.
8. What do baby pandas eat? Do they also eat bamboo?
Just like human beings, baby pandas eat breast milk in their early years. The enzymes in the breast milk of giant pandas are not found in other milk.
When they are a little bigger, they eat the artificially modulated basin milk. When they are almost half-year-old, they can eat tender bamboo shoots, and then bamboo.
9. What do pandas eat besides bamboo?
The main food of the panda is bamboo. Occasionally, they eat other plants, such as awnless wheat, corn, horsetail, notopterygium, Polygonaceae Rumex crispus, and other dozens of plants.
They even feed on animal carcasses or catch smaller animals for food. Giant pandas love meat, especially mutton.
10. Do pandas eat the same all year round?
Giant pandas love to eat different kinds of bamboo shoots in spring and summer. In autumn, bamboo leaves are the main food. In winter, bamboo stalks are the main food.
However, bamboo shoots are generally preferred because of the high water content, nutrient content, and sugar content.
11. Can pandas eat meat?
Giant pandas eat meat. But as China’s national treasures, most giant pandas can only be seen in zoos, so everyone is used to their behavior acting cute, ignoring its nature.
Giant pandas love meat very much, and they don’t refuse birds nor eggs. When a giant panda meets a bamboo rat while eating bamboo, they will swallow it. Sometimes the giant panda sees other carnivores such as cockroaches, leopards, and the like catch muntjac, they will squat nearby, waiting for their residual scraps. Or they will steal food that other cats have buried.
12. Do pandas eat carrots?
Yes! They eat a little carrot.
There is a giant panda named “Nuannuan” of two years old who only likes to eat carrots, especially the finest. The Malaysian National Zoo spends more than $600,000 a year on “Nuannuan” food purchases.
Because of this, “Nuannuan”, as the world’s first giant panda to be “returned” on November 15, 2017, breakes the record!
13. Do pandas eat rats?
The ancestor of the giant panda was eating bamboo rats. The bamboo rat is a big mouse living in the bamboo. Because of evolution, the giant panda is now vegetarian, and 99% of the food is bamboo.
However, because bamboo is sometimes insufficient, and the bamboo rat’s meat is tender, which is very suitable for giant pandas, the bamboo rat is basically the favorite food of giant pandas except for bamboo.
14. Do pandas eat fruits?
Giant pandas like to eat some wild fruits, such as wild apples on the mountain. Giant pandas like them very much. Apples are low-sugar foods, and they taste very good. In leisure time, the giant pandas will also find some to eat.
15. Will giant pandas hibernate?
The giant panda does not hibernate. The panda is a thermostatic mammal with no hibernation characteristics.
16. Where do giant pandas live?
Wild pandas all live in southwest China forests, and zoo pandas can be found in almost every main zoo in China.
17. What is a giant panda’s habitat?
They live in the dense bamboo forest of the upper reaches of the Yangtze River in China at an altitude of 2,600-3,500 meters.
It is generally on a gently sloped terrain below 20°and its humidity is often above 80%.
18. What climate do pandas live in?
The giant panda habitat belongs to the mountain climate based on the subtropical monsoon climate and the climate has obvious vertical differences.
It distributes the evergreen broad-leaf and broadleaved deciduous mixed forest, coniferous broad-leaved forest, and subalpine coniferous forest.
19. What altitude of panda’s habitat?
The giant pandas live in the deep valleys of the upper reaches of the Yangtze River in China at an altitude of 2,600-3,500 meters above sea level.
20. Where are Chinese giant pandas distributed?
The distribution of giant pandas is limited to the alpine deep valleys of the transition from the upper reaches of the Yangtze River to the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau in China, including the Qinling Mountains, Minshan Mountain, Qionglai Mountain, Daxiangling & Xiaoxiangling, and Dalangshan & Xiaoliangshan mountains.
21. Where are the captive pandas distributed?
The captive giant pandas are mainly in the major zoos in China, as well as in cooperative zoos around the world. There are more giant pandas in Dujiangyan, Bifengxia, and Wolong Panda Base.
According to the latest statistics, as of November 2018, the number of captive giant pandas in the world reached 548, of which 482 were pandas in Sichuan.
22. Where are the wild pandas distributed?
The number of giant pandas in the wild has now reached more than 1,590, and this year it will increase, mainly in 55 nature reserves. China’s first giant panda nature reserve is the Wolong National Nature Reserve.
23. Is captivity good for the giant panda?
Captivity is important for the protection of giant pandas, but going to nature is the ultimate destination for captive giant pandas.
24. Which animal is a big threat to giant pandas?
The natural enemies of the giant pandas are wolves, which is beyond the expectations of many people, but it is the reality.
The wolf is different from other large ferocious carnivores. Wolves live in packs, and whether it is hunting or living, it is a group to act together. Other ferocious carnivores, like pandas, prefer to act alone. The wolves are playing a lot of advantages here.
The environment in which wild pandas live is still very safe. It has a strong sense of territory and unlike other ferocious animals, they do not have to eat meat. The life and eating habits that they love bamboo and love to climb trees make them more secure.
25. What are the characteristics of the panda’s habitat?
The active areas are mostly in depressions, corries, valley terraces, etc., generally in the gentle slope terrain below 20°.
There are dense forests, bamboo with good growth, relatively stable temperature, good hiding conditions, and abundant food resources and water resources.
26. Does China own all pandas?
The giant pandas seen in other countries, such as Japan, are rented out by China and will eventually return to China.
27. Why are there no wild giant pandas in other countries?
So far, only China has the wild pandas. There are no wild giant pandas abroad. Even non-wild giant pandas are donated by China.
In fact, there were wild giant pandas in foreign countries, but they all disappeared later. The reason why they disappeared was that the change of climate, the change of geography, and other factors. It is also possible that the Chinese environment is more suitable for panda growth.
28. Do giant pandas have natural predators?
Of course yes! Any species has natural enemies, and giant pandas are no exception. A fully grown panda has few natural predators besides humans. But panda cubs are vulnerable to attacks.
29. What are giant pandas predators？
Adult pandas almost have no natural predators in the wild due to their large size, strong muscles, and isolated habitat.
The case for panda cubs is a little different. They absolutely belong to a vulnerable group when born. They have to be closely guarded by adult pandas to avoid being eaten by other large animals, such as jackals, snow leopards, yellow-throated martens, eagles, etc.
30. Jackals
Jackals are medium-sized omnivorous mammals of the genus Canis. Jackals and coyotes (also called the American jackal) are opportunistic omnivores, predators of small to medium-sized animals and proficient scavengers. So young pandas are also be listed in their preys.
31. Snow leopards
These large and carnivorous cats are native to the mountains of South and Central Asia. They have very sharp teeth designed to quickly kill and eat their prey.
If a snow leopard finds a lone panda cub in the wild it will definitely attack it for food. Though they prefer average-sized prey, like gazelles, they are known to track down panda cubs.
33. Yellow-throated martens
The yellow-throated marten is the largest marten in the Old World, and its tail makes up more than half its length. It is an omnivore, whose sources of food range from fruit to small deer. The yellow-throated marten is a fearless animal with few natural predators.
These animals hunt alone or in packs and in one highly publicized case, a group of these martens attacked a 3-year old panda in the wild named PingPing.
34. Eagles
Eagles are large, powerfully built birds of prey, with heavy heads and beaks. Most eagles are larger than any other raptors apart from some vultures. Like all birds of prey, eagles have very large, hooked beaks, strong, muscular legs, and powerful talons.
It is estimated that the martial eagle’s eye is more than twice as long as a human eye and it has a visual acuity 3.0 to 3.6 times that of humans. This acuity enables eagles to spot potential prey from a very long distance. Panda cubs cannot escape from its eyes easily.
35. How do giant pandas face when they encounter enemies？
Giant pandas are solitary and peaceful animals, which will usually avoid confrontation, but if it is impossible to escape, they will certainly fight back.
And as cute as they may look, pandas can protect themselves as well as most other bears by using their physical strength, and powerful jaws and teeth.
36. Where is a giant panda in its food chain？
Giant pandas are herbivores or omnivores, mostly in the middle of the food chain.
In a food chain, sunlight is the beginning and the primary producers, which produces the energy to help plants grow.
The panda comes under the secondary consumer, as it uses photosynthesis to produce its food – Bamboo. While, panda cubs can also be eaten by large animals, such as jackals, snow leopards, yellow-throated martens, eagles, etc.
Decomposers such as worms, mushrooms, flies, and maggots break down dead plants and animals.
37. If the giant panda is extinct, will it affect the food chain?
The extinction of giant pandas may have little impact on the reality of the planet in terms of ecology.
First, their population of about two thousand is too small. It is difficult to have a great impact on the environment.
Second, the giant panda is not a carnivore, and there are almost no species that prey on giant pandas. The food chain in which it is located is too singular. So the impact is almost negligible.
38. How long can a giant panda live?
The giant panda has lived on the earth for at least 8 million years. It is known as the “living fossil” and “China National Treasure”.
It is the image ambassador of the World Wide Fund for Nature and the flagship species of biodiversity conservation in the world.
As China’s first-class protected animal, the wild giant panda has a life span of 18-20 years old, and pandas can be over 30 years old in captivity.
39. What are giant pandas like?
Generally speaking, giant pandas are dangerous. Wild giant pandas are not docile. They are sensitive, but their nature is mild.
In most cases, wild giant pandas will actively avoid contact with humans, but they will rise when their territory is threatened.
40. Do pandas attack humans? Do they eat people?
Under normal circumstances, the panda will not attack humans. In the face of human disturbance, the panda will lazily escape.
However, if you encounter a male panda in estrus or a female panda in the gestation period, you will be attacked when you are too close to them. The ancestors of the pandas are carnivores.
41. Will the giant panda be gentle to the breeder?
Obviously, yes! The breeder cleans up the pandas every day, paying attention to the growth of the pandas, and strictly recording the weight of the pandas, diet and so on.
Because the breeder is very intimate and caring for the giant panda, the giant panda is very dependent on the breeder.
42. Are giant pandas clever and what do they do for the whole day?
The answer is absolutely yes. Although clumsy, pandas are very intelligent animals.
Giant pandas are far older than human history. It can be said that they have been able to survive for so many thousands of years since ancient times, thanks in part to their clever brain!
They adapt to the harsh living environment through their wisdom. In those days, life in all things was particularly difficult, and many animals eventually became extinct because they did not adapt to the environment at the time.
Just like other bears, giant pandas spend most of the day eating and sleeping because an adult giant panda eats about 20 kilograms of fresh bamboo every day and they eat slowly. During their extremely limited activity time, they will also climb trees, fight with other pandas, swing, and so on to enrich their lives.
