[StuartDH]

Because pandas eat a relatively lean diet, pandas don't put on much excess fat and so they don't hibernate over winter.

Pandas can eat more than 10 tonnes of bamboo per day.

Sometimes and is give birth to two babies, but they can usually only look after one of them

In China, panda bears are called "Xiongmao", which mean 'Giant Cat Bear'

Giant pandas can live to up to 35 years old in capativity and about 20-25 years in the wild.

Pandas live most of their lives on their own as they are quite solitary animals, but the meet up occasionally and they also communicate with other pandas using scent and calls.

There are less than 1600 pandas in the wild.

A female panda only comes into season for about three days per year

When they pander is only one day old it looks a bit like a small white rat



If you know any more facts about pandas, please add them here

[paul m]

There are two species of 'panda' - the giant and the red - which seem not to be closely related although both are now confined to eastern Asia and are predominantly herbivores.
I was always fascinated by where both of them had evolved and how they fitted into systematics. The giant pandas has been called 'a bear', then 'not a bear' &c &c - it now seems that it is part of the broader bear family but diverged from the true bears at an early stage of evolution. Giant Panda - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia . The red panda, on the other hand, looks rather raccoon-like and is considered to be a member of the Mustelidae (weasel family) ... but there is argument over this, as well! Red Panda - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Both species are endangered ......

[scobey]

Don't they also only eat bamboo and nothing else? Why is that?

[paul m]

Probably because they evolved in such a relatively small area where bamboos were a predominant part of the vegetation. Therefore no need for them to eat anything else so their digestive systems stopped being able to digest anything else. Bamboos are a type of grass, really, and many other animals have become grass-specialists. It involves a complex relationship with bacteria in the gut and the structure of the gut is different for grass-eaters than general foliage feeders. So, if bamboos became extinct, so would giant pandas ....

Originally Posted by scobey

Don't they also only eat bamboo and nothing else? Why is that?