Pandas

The giant panda only exists at present in six small areas located in inland China.

The habitat, suitable for the bamboo on which it survives, is a cold, damp coniferous

forest. The elevation ranges from 1,200 to 3,400 meters high. In most of the areas in

which they still roam wild, they must compete with farmers who farm the river valleys

and the lower slopes of the mountains. It is estimated that there are somewhere around

700 and 1,000 giant pandas still alive in the wild. Because of their reliance on bamboo

as their primary food, they will remain in significant danger unless their present habitat is

expanded. The differing varieties of bamboo go through periodic die-offs as part of their

renewal cycle. Without the ability to move to new areas which have not been affected,

starvation and death will certainly occur for the giant panda. Such die-offs of the bamboo

also put the giant pandas in more direct contact with farmers and poachers as the bears

try to find new areas in which to feed.

Pandas have few natural enemies other than man, so the life-span of giant pandas

in the wild is thought to be twenty-five years or more.

Giant pandas have forepaws which are extremely flexible. Evolution has given

them an enlarged wrist bone that works in the manner of an opposable thumb. This

highly functional adaptation allows the giant panda to manipulate their primary food

source, bamboo stems and leaves, with precision. The hind feet of the giant panda lack

the heel pad found in the other seven bear species. Giant pandas have a massive head,

heavy body, short tail, rounded ears and plantigrade feet (when both heel and toe make

contact with the ground when walking in a manner similar to humans).

Although giant pandas will eat a large variety of plants, the overwhelming bulk of

their diet, consists of bamboo leaves, stems and shoots. Over