The Big Panda is an Asian mammal from the Bear family. It has nothing to do with the Pandas family, despite some signs of raccoons. The bear panda is called in the West, because there were suggestions of kinship with the small panda. In China, this beast is called a cat bear.
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History of the study of the species
This is a rather secretive animal; it is not very simple to study it. In Europe, they learned about such a beast in the second half of the 19th century. Naturalists were able to observe the panda in the wild only at the beginning of the 20th century.
For many years there has been a debate among scientists about who the pandas are. That small, that large have signs of raccoon and bear. But more than a hundred years ago, with the careful study of several skins of a bamboo bear, it turned out that the giant panda is the oldest representative of the Bears. They could probably be the ancestors of today's bears.
At the beginning of the last century, an American scientist determined that pandas have much in common with striped raccoons. He decided that the big panda is a huge raccoon.
Finally, using DNA tests, it became clear that this is a bear. The panda is closely related to the South American eyeglass bear.
Description and features of big pandas
What do bamboo spotted bears look like:
- The length of the body varies from 120 to 180 cm. In height - 60 - 70 cm, measured in the shoulders.
- The body weight of adult animals varies from 17 to 160 kg. The average value is 102 kg.
- Significant difference between females and males. Females are approximately 20% lighter. Body length is 10% less.
- Color black and white spotted. Usually the head is white, the ears and hair around the eyes are black. Mostly white torso, black limbs.
The body is large and massive.The coat is thick and dense. Short thick limbs, wide legs, strong and strong nails. The pads on the fingers and sole are well developed so that the animals can comfortably hold the smooth and sliding bamboo stems while eating.
For the convenience of holding the stem, the big pandas developed the so-called sixth finger. It is opposite the rest. But this is the metacarpal bone that has evolved over millions of years.
Short rounded feet when walking do not put completely on the ground. Big head and ears, muzzle not elongated. These are omnivorous mammals, but their teeth are different from the teeth of other bears due to the need to eat bamboo stems.
This is a description of the species most common. There is another subspecies.
Characteristics:
- color is brown and light brown;
- the size is smaller than that of black and white relatives;
- live in the mountains only in Shaanxi province;
- live at an altitude of 1.3 - 3 km.
They were discovered in the 60s of the twentieth century. However, a description of a separate subspecies was made only in 2005.
Lifestyle & Habitat
A large panda lives in a highland in the center of China. These are the local provinces of Gansu, Sichuan and Tibet.
Females choose bamboo forests for life in order to provide offspring with a safe place in good thickets. Their range is less than males.
In hot times, the animals take refuge in the mountain peaks for about 4 kilometers. This is necessary to hide from the heat. Pandas do not go into hibernation and are active all year.
Pandas usually live in dense, almost impenetrable bamboo forests. Of the entire habitat (30 thousand sq. Km.), They inhabit about 6 thousand square meters. km
Spotted bears live in small groups. Most of them are related to each other by relatives.
What do mammals eat?
Panda belongs to predators, but feeds mainly on bamboo. Sometimes it eats other plants, for example, saffron bulbs. An animal can eat 15-30 kg of bamboo per day. In zoos make pressed "cookies" from the fibers of this plant. There they feed the animal with apples, carrots, rice porridge, sugarcane.
Sometimes a panda eats small animals, birds, carrion, eggs, insects. She needs this to replenish her protein supply. Therefore, it is safe to say that the bamboo bear is an omnivorous animal.
If all bamboo suddenly dies in their habitat, pandas face starvation. This happened in 1975 and 1983.
The beast spends most of its active time searching and eating food. Bamboo is not a very nutritious and digestible food. This plant contains more than 50% of the liquid, and about 90% in young shoots. But this is not enough for spotted mammals, they add their diet with water from fresh sources.
Due to the fact that they are used to living in thickets, bears can be left without food. For example, if you divide the forest expensive, they are afraid to cross to the other side. Even if there is no food left on this side, but there is plenty of bamboo. They are afraid to go out into the open.
Reproduction and longevity
In the wild, a large panda becomes sexually mature at the age of about 4.5 years. They begin to produce in another 2 to 3 years. In captivity a little earlier. Mating season lasts all spring. Panda offspring are born about once every 2 years, since for about 1.5 years the mother takes care of the previous cub.
The female carries the fetus, on average, 135 days. Depending on its development, the number of days varies from 84 to 181 days. The fetus can be delayed in development from 1.5 to 4 months. Therefore, cubs are born at a time convenient for them and their mother.
At a time, 1 to 2 cubs are born. Mother leaves the second, and feeds the first. For two, she does not have enough strength.
In captivity, they rarely breed, until 2000 there were no such cases at all. In the natural environment, mountain bears live 20 years.
Life in captivity and conservation
The giant panda is listed in the Red Book.Due to the protective measures adopted by the Chinese government, since 2016, the panda is only in a “vulnerable position”, and not “dying out”, as it was before.
There are about 1,600 pandas in the world now. Of these, 300 live in Chinese zoos. In zoos of other countries they are extremely rare. The Chinese government prohibits exporting them from the country and selling them. They rent animals for 10 years for $ 1 million. Moreover, all the offspring of rented bears are the property of China.
What if twins were born in captivity in a panda? One baby is left, the second is taken for a short time. They are changed every few days. So it turns out to save two individuals.
Interesting Facts
We offer a list of interesting facts about the bamboo panda:
- They do not belong to the Pandov family, but to the Bear family.
- Despite the fact that they feed exclusively on small animals, there have been cases of a spotted bear attacking a person.
- The oldest panda died at the age of 34.
- China has been severely punished for killing a panda: the death penalty.
- In the first days after the birth of the cub, the mother does not even go out to eat and drink. It feeds it with milk up to 14 times a day, one feeding, it happens, lasts up to half an hour.
- Big and small pandas are not related.
- About 20% is absorbed from the food eaten by the body of the panda.
- In China, this bear is considered an unofficial symbol, and at the same time, the big panda is the official symbol of the World Wide Fund for Nature.
- It moves from place to place only if it has eaten all the bamboo around itself so as not to expend energy.
A bamboo, spotted or mountain bear, a large or giant panda - all these are the names of one animal. Due to its secrecy, it is still considered poorly understood.
