Pandas

1.   Giant pandas are found in the wild only in mountainous bamboo forests of southwestern China.

2.    Listen for a giant panda’s vocalizations, and you might hear it bleat, squeal, honk, growl, moan, or bark.

3.   There are probably only about 1,000 giant pandas left in the wild. They are classified as an endangered species.

4.   Giant pandas may live to be up to 30 years old in captivity.

5.   Giant pandas are generally solitary. Males and females come together briefly to mate. Young pandas stay with their mothers for up to 18 months.

6.   Habitat loss caused by logging is the largest threat to giant pandas today.

7.   The Chinese name for panda is daxiongmao, which means
“large bear-cat.”

8.   Occasionally they eat other vegetation, fish, or small animals, but bamboo accounts for 99 percent of their diets. Pandas eat fast, they eat a lot, and they spend about 12 hours a day doing so.

9.    Pandas’ molars are very broad and flat. The shape of these teeth helps the animals crush the bamboo shoots, leaves, and stems they eat.

10. Baby pandas nurse until they are about four months old and stay with their mothers for a year or so before they’re ready to live on their own.