The World Wild Life Fund for Nature was founded in 1961, with the aim of conserving animals and nature in harmony with human beings. They chose the instantly recognisable giant panda as their symbol. The giant panda is only found in the wild in China and is considered to be a national treasure in that country.
The giant panda’s fur is a mixture of black and white. It has black patches around the eyes, as well as black ears, snout, legs and a strip around the body. This colouring makes them difficult to see in the misty mountain forests they call home. Their fur is thick and coarse, keeping them warm in the chilly weather. They are large animals, measuring about 1.50m long including their stubby tail. They stand about 75cm high to the shoulder, and weigh about 100-115kg. Females are smaller than males.
Although giant pandas are carnivores, 99% of their diet is bamboo. Bamboo is not very nutritious, so the pandas have to eat an awful lot of it to survive – between 12 and 38kg a day. They eat the shoots, leaves and the stems of the bamboo, and have strong teeth and jaws to crunch through the tough fibre. They will also eat the occasional small rodents, fish or eggs. Pandas eat sitting down, much like us. They have five claws and an elongated wrist bone almost like a human thumb, which they use to hold the bamboo. They spend most of their day eating (up to 14 hours) and the rest of the time they sleep and relax to conserve energy. They are mainly solitary animals, preferring to keep to themselves.
The breeding season takes place from March to May. The cubs develop inside the mother for 95-160 days. Usually, the mother will give birth to one cub; sometimes there are twins. But in the wild, only one will survive as the mother cannot provide enough milk for two. The cubs are tiny when they are born, weighing only 110g and they are completely helpless. They start off with pink skin, then after a couple of weeks, they develop grey patches where the black fur will grow later on. The mother takes care of all the parenting; nursing, guarding and playing with the cubs.
The cubs’ eyes open when they are six weeks old, and they can move around at about three months. They will start eating bamboo at six months, but usually continue to nurse until they are a year old. They stay with their mother for the first 18 months. The giant panda has been a great success story for conservationists. There were only about 1,000 left in the wild in the late 1980s. Through careful conservation efforts, that number increased to an estimated 1,864 pandas by 2014. China has created reserves where the pandas are protected and their habitat has been restored. In September last year, the giant panda was removed from the list of endangered animals, though conservation efforts will have to continue.
