Hi Everyone!

Wow! This week seemed like the “Week of the Panda” with the postings on the Kung Fu Panda Movie and the Kung Fu Panda Video Game.

This morning, I asked Mama if we could do some research on the Internet so I could learn more about the Giant Panda. We found a lot of interesting information and I asked Mama if we could share it with you today. She said that was a great idea so I would like to tell you a little about the Giant Panda.

The Giant Panda is a mammal classified in the bear family, native to central-western and southwestern China.It is easily recognized by its large, distinctive black patches around the eyes, over the ears, and across its round body. Although scientists do not know why these unusual bears are black and white, some speculate that the bold coloring provides effective camouflage into their shade-dappled snowy and rocky surroundings. The panda’s thick, wooly coat keeps it warm in the cool forests of its habitat. Giant Pandas have large molar teeth and strong jaw muscles for crushing tough bamboo. Adults measure around 1.5 m long and around 75 cm tall, at the shoulder. Males are 10-20% larger than females. Males can weigh up to 115 kg (253 pounds). Females are generally smaller than males, and can occasionally weigh up to 100 kg (220 pounds).The Giant Panda has the second longest tail in the bear family, it being 4-6 inches long. The longest belongs to the sloth bear. Giant Pandas can usually live to be 20-30 years old in captivity. Many people find these chunky, lumbering animals to be cute, but giant pandas can be as dangerous as any other bear. Though belonging to the order Carnivora (meat-eating), the panda has a diet which is 99% bamboo. Pandas may eat other foods such as honey, eggs, fish, yams, shrub leaves, oranges and bananas when available.

Giant Pandas live in a few mountain ranges in central China, in Sichuan, Shaanxi, and Gansu provinces. They once lived in lowland areas, but farming, forest clearing, and other development now restrict Giant Pandas to the mountains.In the wild, pandas are terrestrial animals and primarily spend their lives roaming and feeding in the bamboo forests of the Qinling Mountains and in hilly Sichuan Province. Though generally alone, each adult has a defined territory and females are not tolerant of other females in their range. Pandas communicate through vocalization and scent marking such as clawing trees or spraying urine. They are able to climb and take shelter in hollow trees or rock crevices but do not establish permanent dens. As such pandas do not hibernate, which is similar to other subtropical mammals, and will instead move to elevations with warmer temperatures.

Pandas have been a target for poaching by locals since ancient times, and by foreigners since they were introduced to the West. Starting in the 1930s, foreigners were unable to poach pandas in China because of the Second Sino-Japanese War and the Chinese Civil War, but pandas remained a source of soft furs for the locals. The population boom in China after 1949 created stress on the pandas’ habitat, and the subsequent famines led to the increased hunting of wildlife, including pandas. During the Cultural Revolution, all studies and conservation activities on the pandas were stopped. After the Chinese economic reform, demand for panda skins from Hong Kong and Japan led to illegal poaching for the black market, acts generally ignored by the local officials at the time.

The Giant Panda is an endangered species and highly threatened. According to the latest report, China has 239 Giant Pandas in captivity and another 27 pandas living outside the country. It also estimated that around 1,590 pandas are currently living in the wild. However, a 2006 study, via DNA analysis, estimated that there might be as many as 2,000 to 3,000 pandas in the wild.Though reports show that the numbers of wild pandas are on the rise,the World Conservation Union (IUCN) believes there is not enough certainty to remove pandas from the endangered animal list.

The Giant Panda is among the world’s most adored and protected rare animals, and is one of the few in the world whose natural inhabitant status was able to gain a UNESCO World Heritage Site designation. The Sichuan Giant Panda Sanctuaries, located in the southwest Sichuan province and covering 7 natural reserves, were inscribed onto the World Heritage List in 2006.

I really like the Giant Panda and I know now that they must be protected if we are going to have them to see in the future. I hope that you have read this post with your parents so they can better explain what all of this means. Mama explained everything to me and I now respect the panda as a friend of all of us. Let us protect the Giant Panda.

Thanks for your visit. See you tomorrow! 

Technorati Tags: animal conservation, Giant Panda, protected animals

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