Interesting Creatures… The Giant Panda
Kaieteur News – The giant panda (Ailuropoda melanoleuca; Chinese: 大熊猫; pinyin: dàxióngmāo), https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Giant_panda – cite_note-Scheff_Duncan-5 also known as a panda bear or simply the panda, is a bear native to South Central China. It is characterized by large, black patches around his eyes, over the ears, and all over his round body. The name “giant panda” is sometimes used to distinguish it from the nearby red, musteloid panda. Although belonging to the guild Carnivore, the giant panda is a failure, with bamboo shoots and leaves making up more than 99 percent of its diet. Sometimes giant pandas in the wild eat other grasses, wild tubers, or even meat in the form of birds, rodents, or venison. In captivity, they can receive honey, eggs, fish, yams, bush leaves, oranges or bananas, along with specially prepared food.
The giant panda lives in a few mountains in central China, mainly in Sichuan, but also in nearby Shaanxi and Gansu. As a result of farming, deforestation, and other developments, the giant panda has been driven out of the lowland areas where it once lived, and is a vulnerable species dependent on conservation. A 2007 report showed 239 pandas living in captivity inside China and a further 27 outside the country. In December 2014, 49 giant pandas lived in captivity outside China, living in 18 zoos in 13 different countries. Wild population estimates vary; one estimate shows that around 1,590 individuals live in the wild, while a 2006 study through DNA analysis estimated that this figure could be as high as 2,000 to 3,000. Some reports also show that the number of giant pandas in the wild is increasing. In March 2015, the conservation news site Mongabay reported that the wild giant panda population increased by 268 or 16.8 percent, to 1,864. In 2016, the IUCN redistributed the species from “endangered” to “vulnerable,” confirming decades-long efforts to save the panda.
Although the dragon has often served as China’s national symbol, internationally the giant panda has often filled this role. As such, it is widely used in China in international contexts, for example appearing since 1982 on gold panda bullion coins and as one of Fuwa’s five mascots at the Beijing Olympics.
The giant panda has luxurious black-and-white fur. Adults measure approximately 1.2 to 1.9 meters (3 feet 11 inches to 6 feet 3 inches) in length, including a tail of about 10–15 cm (4–6 in), and 60 to 90 cm (24 to 35 in) of shoulder height. Males can weigh up to 160 kg (350 lbs). Females (generally 10-20 percent less than males) can weigh as little as 70 kg (150 lbs), but they can also weigh up to 125 kg (276 lbs). The average adult weight is 100 to 115 kg (220 to 254 lbs).
The giant panda has a body shape typical of bears. He has black fur on his ears, eye patches, dirt, legs, arms and shoulders. The rest of the animal’s coat is white. Although scientists do not know why these unusual bears are black and white, speculation suggests that the bold coloring provides effective camouflage in their sheltered snow and rocky habitat, and that their eye patches could facilitate identification. The panda’s thick woolly coat keeps it warm in the cool woods of its habitat. The shape of the panda’s skull is typical of durophagous carnivores. It has evolved from previous ancestors to exhibit larger molars with increasing complexity and extended temporal fossa. A giant panda 110.45 kg (243.5 lbs) has a 3D canine tooth bite force of 2603.47 newton and a bite force quotient of 292.]Another study obtained a massive panda bite of 117.5 kg (259 lbs) of 1298.9 newton (BFQ 151.4) on canine teeth. and 1815.9 newtones (BFQ 141.8) at carnassial teeth.
The giant panda’s paw has a “thumb” and five fingers; the “thumb” – a customized sesamoid bone – helps it hold bamboo while eating. Stephen Jay Gould discusses this feature in his book of essays on evolution and biology, The Panda’s Thumb.
The giant panda’s tail, measuring 10 to 15 cm (4 to 6 in), is the second longest in the bear family (the longest belongs to the sloth bear).
The giant panda usually lives about 20 years in the wild and up to 30 years in captivity. The oldest giant panda in captivity was a woman named Jia Jia, born in 1978 and died at the age of 38 on 16 October 2016. (Source: Wikipedia)