Scientists have debated for more than a century whether giant pandas belong to the bear family, the raccoon family or a separate family of their own. This is because the giant panda and its cousin, the lesser or red panda, share many characteristics with both bears and raccoons. Recent DNA analysis indicates that giant pandas are more closely related to bears and red pandas are more closely related to raccoons. Accordingly, giant pandas are categorized in the bear family while red pandas are categorized in the raccoon family.

History: The scientific name of the giant panda, Ailuropoda melanoleuca, means "black and white cat-footed." Over the past 3,000 years, the much-loved panda has acquired over 30 different Chinese names. Today, the most widely used Chinese name is da xiongmao (dah-shung-mah-ow), translated into English it means "large bear-cat."

The giant panda is a symbol of peace in China. One reason for this is that pandas rarely feed on other animals. The panda's peaceful reputation also arises from the ancient belief that pandas fed on copper and iron. This belief probably stemmed from the fact that pandas sometimes enter villages and lick and chew on cooking pots. In times of war iron was used to make weapons and copper was used to make Buddhist statues. Thus the panda was believed to go hungry in wartime and flourish in times of peace. Additionally, the panda was used as a symbol on flags to signal surrender. Today, the giant panda is the logo of the World Wide Fund for Nature (also known as the World Wildlife Fund), an organization dedicated to the conservation and protection of the world's endangered species.

References to the giant pandas can be found in Chinese writings that are over 3,000 years old. Pere Armand David, a French missionary, first introduced the giant panda to the Western world. The first live panda was exported from China to the United States in 1936. This animal was exhibited at the Brookfield Zoo in Chicago.

Other Pandas in the United States
National Zoo Pandas | San Diego Zoo Pandas | Memphis Zoo Pandas

Characteristics:

• Length: Giant pandas are about 5 - 6 feet (1.6 - 1.8 meters) in length.
• Weight: Newborn giant panda average only about 3.7 ounces (104 g) in weight. Adults average 175 - 275 lbs. (80 - 125 kg) Wild adult males average 225 lbs. (102 kg). Wild adult female average 193 lbs. (88 kg). Males weigh an average of 10-20% more than females, indicating sexual dimorphism.
• Coloration: The color pattern of the giant panda's coat is unique among mammals. This color pattern is visible in the forest; but provides camouflage in the snow.
  • The hair is coarse and extremely dense and woolly. It is also slightly oily.
  • The density of the coat keeps the animal warm, and the oiliness repels water; this is an adaptation to a cool to a cool, moist climate.

The Legend of How Pandas Got Their Markings
Long ago a family of humble shepherds made its home in the remote hills of China. Each day the shepherds led their animals to graze in the pastures near the bamboo forest. Frequently a little panda would wander from the forest to join the flock. Perhaps the young panda mistook the sheep for its own kind, for in those days pandas were all white. One day, as the panda roamed among the sheep, a huge leopard sprang from the forest. The sheep scattered and ran away, but the little panda was too slow to escape. He surely would have been killed by the leopard if not for the bravery of a young shepherdess. She ran to her friend's aid and began beating the leopard furiously with a stick. The leopard turned from the panda and attacked the girl. Although she fought bravely, the shepherdess was no match for the leopard. News of the shepherdess' brave deed quickly spread through the forest. When the other pandas heard the story, they began to cry and throw ashes upon themselves in mourning. As they wiped their tears away, their dirty paws left dark smudges around their eyes. As they hugged each other, their paws stained their arms and legs. And when the pandas tried to muffle the sound of their sobs by covering their ears, they blackened them as well. Ever since that day, pandas have worn these markings out of respect for the shepherdess who died so that one of their kind might live.

Pseudothumb

• The giant panda's forepaws are adapted for grasping bamboo stems with the addition of a sixth digit. This is the panda's famous "thumb."
• The pseudothumb is actually an extension of a wrist bone, the radial sesamoid.
• It functions as an opposable thumb. The panda can move its pseudothumb independently and bring it into opposition with the first digit. This enables pandas to handle bamboo with dexterity and increases their foraging effieciency.

Locomotion

• The giant panda's feet are platigrade. The toes of both the forefeet and hindfeet turn in.
• Pandas usually move at a walk, but they can also trot rapidly.
• They are good climbers.
• Although giant pandas appear clumsy, they are able to move with ease and silence over steep terrain and through dense bamboo.

Range

Fossil evidence indicates that giant pandas were widely distributed throughout eastern China, as far north as Beijing, and as far west as Burma.

Currently, they are only found in mountainous areas of southwestern China. Most of the wild population live in the province of Sichuan; some pandas also inhabit the provinces of Gansu and Shaanxi.

Habitat

• Giant pandas live in bamboo forests usually at an elevation between 8,500 and 9,800 feet (2,600 and 3,000 m). The lower altitudinal limit is determined by human activity, which has destroyed most of the bamboo below 4,000 feet (1,200 m).
• Bamboo rarely grows above 11,500 feet (3,500 m); thus, pandas are not found higher than this elevation. The climate is cool and wet.

Life Span

• Giant pandas live to be about 18 to 20 years old in the wild.
• They may live to be over 30 years old in captivity.

Diet

• Bamboo makes up 99% of a wild giant panda's diet.
• Pandas occasionally eat plants other than bamboo; they will also eat meat when it is available.
• Although giant pandas subsist on a herbivore's diet, they retain the short relatively simple digestive tract of a carnivore. Giant pandas lack the digestive tract modifications that allow herbivores to break down the cell walls of plants. Thus, like humans, giant pandas can only digest the contents of plant cells. Because pandas consume a diet low in nutrition, it is important that they keep their digestive tract full.
• Giant pandas selectively eat different parts of the bamboo plant, depending on the season. Pandas consume mainly leaves and young stems from November to March, mainly old stems from April to June, and primarily leaves from July to October.
• An adult giant panda in the wild ingests about 28 pounds (12 kg) of fresh bamboo per day. This is over 10,000 pounds of bamboo per year.
• When wild giant pandas feed on bamboo shoots, they sometimes consume as much as 80 pounds (36 kg) of fresh shoots per day.
• The panda's round face is an adaptation to its bamboo diet. Pandas have powerful jaw muscles that attach to a prominent sagittal crest. They have large molars for crushing and grinding fibrous plant material.

Help us feed the giant pandas! Zoo Atlanta's pandas are provided 175-220 pounds of bamboo to eat each day! The bamboo growing on your property may be suitable for the pandas' diet. If it meets our quality standards, our team will provide the labor to harvest the bamboo for use at the zoo. Call the Bamboo Hotline today to arrange your bamboo donation: 404.624.5884.

Activity Cycle

• Giant pandas are most active in the morning and evening.
• A panda is usually active for about 14 hours per day.
• Most of the active time is spent foraging. Other activities like traveling scent marking, and grooming, only take a small percentage of the panda's time.
• Rest periods generally last for 2-4 hours, and few are longer than 6 hours.

Social Organization

• Giant pandas are solitary.
• Males and females occupy overlapping home ranges that vary in size from 2.5-4.0 sq. miles (3.9-6.4 km squared).
• Females tend to concentrate their activity in a core area, which may contain important den sites and more nutritious bamboo.
• Males roam more widely, visiting the core areas of females and subadults.

Olfactory: Scent is the primary mode of communication for giant pandas. Both males and females have a large gland, which they rub against surfaces to leave scent messages behind.

Wild pandas have been found to repeatedly mark trees located along well-traveled routes. These "scent posts" allow pandas living in the area to become familiar with their neighbors, and to monitor the comings and goings of other pandas.

Studies have revealed that each panda has its own unique scent, and that pandas can distinguish between the scents of individuals. Olfactory cues are useful for long-distance communication.

Female giant pandas mainly scent mark to attract males during the spring breeding season, when they go into estrus (i.e., the period during which a female is receptive to a male and is capable of conceiving).

Male giant pandas scent mark throughout the year. Four different postures are used for scent marking: 1) handstand (weight rests on forelegs, hindlegs raised off the ground; usually only displayed by males; also communicates size of the male by how far up the mark is placed - bigger animals can mark higher up), 2) leg cock (one hindleg raised off ground; usually displayed by males), 3) reverse (animal backs up to an object and marks), 4) squat (animal squats and marks horizontal surface; displayed by both males and females, but more common in females).

Reproduction

• Giant panda females generally only come into estrus once a year, during the spring.
• The entire estrous period may last from 12-25 days, but peak estrus or receptivity only lasts for about 2-7 days.
• Female behavior changes noticeably during estrus. Initially, scent marking increases greatly.
• As the estrous period progresses, the female will bleat and urinate more frequently. Some females also play and splash in water, roll, and walk backwards.
• Closer to peak estrus, the female begins to chirp, raise her tail, approach males, and finally show lordosis (the posture used during mating).
• In the wild, males are drawn to females by their scent marking.
• Males congregate around the estrous female and compete for access to her. Usually, the dominant male will mate with the female. In the wild, as many as five males have been observed to gather around one estrous female.
• Giant pandas have delayed implantation. That is, the fertilized egg only develops to the blastocyst stage and then floats free in the uterus for some time before implanting. Thus, the gestation period is variable. The average is 4.5 months.
• Wild females usually give birth in a hollow tree or rock cave. A female will give birth to twins over 50% of the time.
• Usually, the mother only raises one cub, probably to conserve energy. However, there are reports of wild females occasionally raising twins, and captive females have done so.
• The mother normally fasts for several days after giving birth.
• As the cub matures, the mother gradually spends more time away from the cub foraging.
• Newborn giant pandas are only 1/900 of their mother's weight.
• Cubs are born blind, covered only with sparse, white fur.
• The black markings develop by about 10-12 days.
• The cub is fully furred by about 25 days of age.
• Cubs start to walk at four months of age.
• They begin to feed on bamboo at about 13-14 months of age.
• A young panda usually remains with its mother for at least 18 months, and sometimes for as long as 2.5 years.

Threats to Survival

• The giant panda is an endangered species.
• Approximately 1600 individuals remain in the wild.
• There are four main threats to giant panda survival: 1) habitat loss, 2) population fragmentation, 3) bamboo die-off, and 4) hunting.
• Habitat destruction, mainly due to logging and farming, is the primary threat to giant panda survival. That is, the loss of absolute area in which giant pandas can live endangers the existing population by reducing the amount of available food, decreasing home range size, and disrupting social organization.
• Furthermore, habitat loss has led to the second factor endangering pandas, population fragmentation. It is estimated that the species is currently divided into perhaps 32 subpopulations with no opportunity for natural genetic exchange. Without genetic exchange, these subpopulations will eventually lose genetic variability, which may result in reduced fertility, birth defects, and greater susceptibility to disease. Additionally, these less genetically diverse subpopulations may be unable to adapt to environmental changes.
• The third problem facing the giant panda, bamboo flowering and subsequent die-off, is also compounded by loss of habitat. Most years bamboo species reproduce vegetatively from rhizomes. However, periodically each bamboo species flowers synchronously, reproduces sexually, and then dies-off, allowing the next generation to slowly emerge as seedlings. Thus, the amount of food available for pandas in the area is temporarily reduced. The amount of bamboo that flowers in a given area is highly variable; it may be a patch, a whole mountainside or valley. When a particular species flowers, pandas in that locale must either move to another area (e.g., a lower altitude) where that species is not flowering or feed on an alternate species not flowering at the time. Unfortunately, these options may not be available to pandas living in small patches of habitat.
• Finally, giant pandas are also endangered by hunting. Giant pandas are sometimes caught in snares set by local people to catch animals, such as muskdeer. Giant pandas are also poached for their skins.

More on giant panda studies | Visit the giant pandas at Zoo Atlanta