Giant Panda

STATUS: Endangered

DESCRIPTION: Legs, shoulders, ears and the oval patches around eyes are all black. Rest of coat is white. Coloring acts as camouflage when the animal moves across the snow. good tree climber and can even swim to escape a predator. Holds bamboo with an enlarged wrist bone that looks like a thumb. Hairs on the soles of the feet give it traction and reduce heat loss on the ice and snow. Some scientists disagree whether the giant panda is a type of bear or raccoon. Others believe it is separate from either bears or raccoons.

SIZE: Length: 6 feet. Weight: 200-300 pounds. Tiny at birth, weighing only 1/2 pound.

HABITAT: Thick bamboo and coniferous forests (evergreens with pine cones), 8,500- 11,500 feet in elevation. Heavy clouds, rain and mists cover these mountains all year.

RANGE: Szechuan, Shensi and Kansu provinces of Central and Western China.

FOOD SOURCE: Mostly bamboo, a tall woody plant full of good fiber. The panda's digestive system does not absorb the fiber, so it must eat a lot of it. Pandas also eat flowers, vines, tufted grasses, green corn, honey and rodents.

BEHAVIOR: Solitary animals. Spend most of its day feeding. Although it is cold in the forest, pandas do not hibernate. They move to lower elevations during the winter to stay warm and to higher elevations in the winter to stay cool. they do not have permanent homes, but sleep at the bottom of trees and under stumps and rock ledges.

REPRODUCTION: Gestation period of 125-150 days. A litter of one or two are born, but only one is reared. Eyes open at 1.5-2 months and the cubs start to move around at 3 months. Weaned at 6 months and become independent at one year.

POPULATION: 1,000 in the wild; 60 in captivity in zoos.

LONGEVITY: Unknown in the wild; over 20 years in captivity.

SURVIVAL THREATS: Habitat loss due to increasing human populations, poaching, and periodic bamboo die-off. Captive-breeding attempts have not been very successful.

LEGAL PROTECTION: CITES, Appendix I, Endangered Species Act.

CONSERVATION: Habitat protection, captive breeding, stiff penalties for those harming pandas, and public education.