Giant Panda Habitat

The "Amazing Panda Adventure", a movie produced in 1995, revolved around a young American boy visiting his father, a doctor working on the conservation project of 'saving the panda' in China. He ends up saving a baby panda from the hands of poachers with the help and support of a young Chinese girl. The cuddle some little panda melted everyone's heart. In this article, we will discuss more about the elusive and highly poached giant panda habitat.

The giant panda has become a symbol of species conservation throughout the world. What is so special about these little black and white bears, that has raised so much dust around the world to help conserve them? Well, these bears are China's national treasure. They are peace-loving, bamboo eating creatures that belong to the bear family. Their habitat is in the fragmented forest area. Thus, there are small populations that are isolated from each other.

Habitat of Giant Panda
The giant pandas made an appearance on our planet about 2 to 3 million years ago and today they are listed in the endangered species list. Their habitat is scattered in the mountains of China and they are found nowhere else on earth. These national treasures of China are protected under the laws of the land. The habitat of giant panda that included South and East China, parts of Myanmar and Northern Vietnam once had a healthy panda population. Scientists have found fossils of the giant panda as far as north of Beijing, that proved that their habitat was wide-spread. Today, the habitat of these cuddly bears is limited to fragmented bamboo forest of the central China mountains. They are mostly seen in the Sichuan province, Gansu and the Shaanxi provinces as well. The giant pandas are concentrated in mountainous areas that are about 8,500 to 11,500 feet above sea level. They live in areas that have a dense growth of fir, spruce and bamboo plants.

Giant Panda Information
These bears have racked up the brains of scientists on the issue whether they are more closely related to the bear or raccoon. They have certain similar qualities that match the bears and certain traits that match the raccoon. Today, the scientists consider the giant pandas as a sub family to the bear family, that is, Ursidae.

Giant Panda Physical Characteristics
The endangered panda bears are black and white in color and have an infantile appearance. They have a short muzzle and large patches of black eye fur. Their torso is mostly white in color with a black color saddle across the back. They also have black fore and hind limbs and even black ears.

The rare giant panda stands about 1 meter tall on all four legs and are about 1.5 meters long. The male giant panda bears weigh about 115 kg and are larger than the females that rarely reach a weight of about 100 kg. The giant pandas have specially designed paws with an extension of the wrist that looks like a thumb. This enables the panda to wrap the fingers around the bamboo stalks and hold it in place with the pseudo thumb that is pushed forward.

The pandas do not have a permanent den to dwell, but take shelter in any available tree cavity or rock crevices. In cold winter, they do not go into hibernation, as their bear relatives. They come to the lower warmer elevations and areas where there is more food. They communicate with each other through scent and vocalizations. Their vocalization mainly ranges from chirps to growls.

Giant Panda Reproduction
These solitary animals become active sexually around 3 to 4 years of age. The female pandas remain in estrus for just one to three weeks, that too once a year. The estrus period is usually from March to May and is at peak only for a few days. The litter size is one to three, of which only one cub survives. The females are very caring and nurturing mothers and take great pains to care for their little one. After giving birth, the mother does not leave her den for many days. She does not even go out to eat or drink.

The cubs usually open their eyes after 50 to 60 days. They begin to crawl after reaching the age of 10 weeks. They began to grow teeth, when they are 14 weeks old and by 21 weeks they are able to walk well. The cub begins to eat bamboo when it is 7 to 9 months old. The mother continues to her little ones till they are about 18 months old. By this time, the mother is ready to raise a new cub. Many cubs and mature pandas do not survive for long in the wild. But when raised in captivity, they grow to a ripe old age of 30 years.

Giant Panda Diet
Although pandas have a digestive system of a carnivorous animal and are placed in the family of meat-eating animals, yet they have adapted to a vegetarian diet. The reason to this unusual behavior may be that they could not compete in hunting down food with other carnivores. They love bamboo stems and leaves. There 95% diet consist of bamboo and the other 5% diet consists of mushrooms, flowers, fish, vines and small rodents.

They have short intestines and therefore cannot digest cellulose. They tend to digest only 20% of what they eat and thus need to eat more to get the required nourishment. They consume about 15 to 30 kilograms of food every day. They cover one kilometer a day foraging in the forest and sleep for over 10 to 16 hours, thus, conserving their energy.

Gain Panda Facts
Now, let us learn some interesting giant panda facts:

• Their life span in the wild is about 18 to 20 years and they can live for more than 30 years in captivity.
• The newborn baby pandas weigh only 3.7 ounces compared to the 175 to 275 pounds when they grow up to be adults.
• The giant pandas are active in morning and evening. They spend most of their time foraging in the forest.
• The panda cubs are born blind and have sparse fur.
• The adult pandas have 11 distinct chirping sounds similar to chimpanzees. They use to promote social contact. A honk may indicate mild distress and barks indicate aggression.
• It is very sad to note that there are only 29 scattered areas that have the appropriate giant panda habitat that can support the existing world population of pandas.

These were a few giant panda facts and a little information on the giant panda habitat. You can find even more interesting facts in the article facts on pandas. There are many conservation plans maintained by the Chinese government and the World Wide Fund for Nature is taking many efforts to help this rare species so that it survives and never enters the list of extinct animals. Giant pandas are noble creatures and never harm anyone. It is our responsibility to help these beautiful creatures survive. If you feel your heart melt when looking at these beautiful creatures, don't you feel our grand and great-grandchildren and many generations should also have a chance to see these beautiful "large bear-cats" free in the wild?