U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service melanoleuca

What is black and white and loved all usually takes place in the spring, and separate of their own. This is over the world? If you guessed the giant three to five months later, one or two cubs because the giant panda and its cousin, the panda, you’re right! The giant panda is also weighing three to five ounces each are born lesser or , share many known as the panda or bear, or in a sheltered den. Usually only one cub characteristics with both and in Chinese as Daxiongmao, the “large bear survives. The eyes open at 11⁄2 to two . Recent DNA analysis indicates .” In fact, its scientific name means months and the cub becomes mobile at that giant pandas are more closely related “black and white cat-footed animal.” approximately three months of age. At to bears and red pandas are more closely twelve months the cub becomes totally related to raccoons. Accordingly, giant Giant pandas are found only in the independent. While their average life span pandas are categorized in the bear family mountains of central —in small in the wild is about fifteen years, giant while red pandas are categorized in the isolated areas of the north and central pandas in captivity have been known to live family. portions of the Province, in the well into their twenties. mountains bordering the southernmost part In 1869, a French and naturalist of Province and in the Scientists have debated for more than a named Pere Armand David was the first Mountains of the Province. century whether giant pandas belong to the European to describe the giant panda. In bear family, the raccoon family or a 1936, clothing designer Ruth Harkness Giant pandas live in dense bamboo and coniferous forests at altitudes of 5,000 to Giant pandas are 10,000 feet. The mountains are shrouded in bear-like in shape heavy clouds with torrential rains or dense with black ears, eye mist throughout the year. patches, legs and shoulder bands, and Giant pandas have existed since the whitish coloring on Era (about 600,000 years ago), the rest of the body. when their geographic range extended throughout southern China. remains also have been found in present-day Burma.

Giant pandas are bear-like in shape with striking black and white markings. The ears, eye patches, legs and shoulder band are black; the rest of the body is whitish. They have thick, woolly coats to insulate them from the cold. Adults are four to six feet long and may weigh up to 350 pounds—about the same size as the . However, unlike the black bear, giant pandas do not hibernate and cannot walk on their hind legs.

The giant panda has unique front — one of the wrist bones is enlarged and elongated and is used like a , enabling the giant panda to grasp stalks of bamboo. They also have very powerful jaws and teeth to crush bamboo. While bamboo stalks and roots make up about 95 percent of its diet, the giant panda also feeds on gentians, irises, crocuses, fish, and occasionally small rodents. It must eat 20 to 40 pounds of food each day to survive, and spends ten to 16 hours a day feeding.

The giant panda reaches breeding maturity between four and ten years of age. brought the first live giant panda, named government has set aside eleven nature Giant pandas eat 20 to 40 pounds of food Su-Lin, out of China and to the West. Su-Lin preserves where bamboo flourishes and each day, mostly bamboo, and spend ten to lived at Chicago’s Brookfield and was a giant pandas are known to live. 16 hours a day feeding. celebrity until he died in 1938. Today,124 giant pandas are found in Chinese . Giant pandas are also susceptible to Only about 20 giant pandas live in zoos , or illegal killing, as their dense outside of China. In 1980, the first giant carries a high price in illegal markets in panda birth outside China occurred at the the Far East. The Chinese government has Zoo. imposed severe penalties for those convicted of poaching giant pandas. Until recently, , D.C.’s National Zoo housed Ling-Ling and Hsing-Hsing, The low reproductive capacity of the giant perhaps the most well-known giant pandas panda makes it more vulnerable to these in North America. A gift from the People’s threats and less capable of rebounding from Republic of China to the people of the its low numbers. United States, they were presented as a gesture of amity and goodwill to President In 1984 the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Richard Nixon when he visited China in listed the giant panda as an endangered 1972. Ling-Ling, at age 23, died in species under the Act December 1992. of 1973. Endangered means a species is considered in danger of extinction Giant pandas are among the rarest throughout all or a significant portion of in the world—there are probably its range. The less dire designation of fewer than 1,000 left in the wild. Although threatened means that a species is likely adult giant pandas have few natural to become endangered in the foreseeable endangered animal and plant species. enemies, the young are sometimes preyed future. This protection also prohibits giant The Fish and Wildlife Service is the upon by . pandas from being imported into the United federal agency responsible for the U.S. States except under certain conditions. government’s implementation of CITES. Habitat encroachment and destruction are the greatest threats to the continued The giant panda is also protected under The Service has established a panda policy existence of the giant panda. This is mainly the Convention on International Trade to inform the public about what is required because of the demand for land and natural in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna to qualify for giant panda importation resources by China’s 1 billion inhabitants. and Flora (CITES), a treaty that monitors permits. The policy focuses on the To offset this situation, the Chinese and controls international trade in conservation of the species in the wild.

The giant panda has unique front paws. Fewer than 1,000 giant pandas remain in One of the wrist bones is enlarged and the wild, making it one of the world’s rarest elongated and is used like a thumb, enabling mammals. Habitat encroachment and the panda to grasp bamboo stalks. destruction as well as illegal killing are the main causes of the giant panda’s decline.

U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service 1 800/344 WILD http://www.fws.gov June 1999