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Giant Panda

Ailuropoda melanoleuca

On the Brink: Reclusive herbivores, giant pandas once enjoyed a wide range in southern China. However, habitat destruction and poaching for their valuable fur have killed off most of them, leaving only about 1,600 in the wild (though some recent studies put the number between 2,000 and 3,000).

The Bamboo Bear: The ancestors of the giant panda were carnivores, but its diet has evolved into one of mostly stalks and roots of the slow-growing, nutrient-poor bamboo. Giant pandas spend 10 to 16 hours a day eating the 20 to 40 pounds of bamboo needed for its daily quota.

A Solitary Life: Giant pandas forage over a large area to get enough; a typical home range is about 1.5 to 2.5 square miles. The solitary giant panda comes together with others only to mate.

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MORE GIANT PANDA

VIDEO: Giant Panda Video

INTERACTIVE: Wild Pandas

MEET: Giant Pandas at the National Zoo

ARTICLES: Pandas in Captivity

PUZZLES: Giant Panda Puzzles

INTERACTIVE: Panda Coattails

SITE: Meet the Pandas

DID YOU KNOW?

The Other One Percent: The giant panda's diet is 99% bamboo, but it does eat other food when available, such as fish, eggs, honey, shrub leaves, yams, oranges and bananas.

The Sixth Finger: The giant panda has five fingers plus a "thumb," which isn't a real thumb but a modified sesamoid bone that allows the panda to grasp bamboo. In most mammals, this bone protects the tendon at a joint.

Docile or Dangerous?: Typically thought of as docile and harmless, the giant panda can be as dangerous as any other bear when provoked and has been known to attack humans on occasion.

Not a Raccoon: Once classified as part of the raccoon family, molecular studies have proven that the giant panda is in fact a bear.

How Stuff Works

Why Don't Giant Pandas Hibernate?
Grizzly bears and black bears hibernate, but not giant pandas. Why is that? Get the answer from our partners at HowStuffWorks.com.