Everything You should Know about Pandas
Panda is believed to be one of the cutest animals in the world. They have round faces, big black eye patches and chubby bodies. They move slow and clumsy, walk like boss and have strong arms. Pandas are only found in China and they have lived on earth since 8 million years ago. In China pandas are considered “living fossils and national treasure”. The image of panda has been chosen to be the logo of World Wild Life Foundation and a flagship species.
Pandas are usually called Giant Pandas in China. They are by biological sense, Animalia, Chordate, Mamalia, Carnivora, Ursidae, Ailuropoda, Ailuropoda melanoleuca. Pandas used to carnivores and have evolved into omnivores and widely believed to be herbivores due to their bamboo-eating habit.
​
How many pandas in total
There are about 2200 pandas living on earth, of which about 1800 of them live in the wild environment and about 400 of them live in the panda bases and zoos. This date is updated in 2015. The number of pandas is increasing through the years.
​
Where do the Pandas live
Pandas used to live a vast land from Beijing to Vietnam. But due to habitat loss and human activities, today panda can only be found in Sichuan Province, Gansu Province and Sh’anxi Province in China. Total protected panda habitat is about 3,360,000 hectares and it is still believed there are more places need to be set as protected habitat for pandas. 80% of the wild pandas live in Sichuan Province and the rest at Southern Gansu Province and Southern Sh’anxi Province. Pandas like humid and cool weather. They don’t hibernate. The mountain areas in Minshan Mountain Range, Qinglaishan Mountain Range, Liangshan Mountain Range, Daxiangling Mountain Range, Xiaoxiangling Mountain Range and Qinling Mountain Range are the homeland of pandas where they like to live at the elevation between 1500 meters and 3000 meters where there are lush bamboos and humid weather and temperature below 20C.
​
How long do pandas live
Pandas live alone. By average a panda in the wild can live up to 20 years old. While in captive at the zoos and panda bases, they can live up to 30 years or even over 30 with the food and shelter provided by humans. Pandas don’t have many natural enemies except leopards and black bears. Pandas can be aggressive if agitated but normally they are docile animals and don’t want to involve in fighting.
What do Pandas eat
99% of what pandas eat is bamboos including bamboo leaves, bamboo stems, bamboo shoots. Young pandas start to eat bamboos after 1 year old. An adult panda can eat over 10 kilograms of bamboos in one day. This is why pandas don’t hibernate, they have to chew the low-nutrition bamboos all the time.
.