Animals like panda name. Giant panda or bamboo bear
Big panda or bamboo bear- a species of mammals belonging to the bear family. This is an ancient and valuable animal, which is a symbol of China. He is so loved and revered there that they put him under the protection of the law. For killing an animal there is a threat the death penalty. It is difficult to confuse him with anyone, thanks to his characteristic black and white color. The mountainous territories of the Republic of China: Tibet and Sichuan are the natural habitat where pandas live. Prefers to live in mixed coniferous forests where there is bamboo.
Giant panda: description, characteristic features
Two Asian animals are called pandas predatory species, similar in appearance and way of life, but belonging to different families. Despite the identity of a bear, a panda for a long time were classified as raccoon representatives.
Description of appearance
The bear has quite large build, with an average weight of 70–120 kg and a height of up to 1.5 m. Males are approximately 10% larger than females. Their body is voluminous, with thick fur. The tail, unlike a bear's, is long. The legs are short and massive, with small feet. When walking, he does not step on his hind legs completely. To make it easier to grip bamboo, there are leathery pads between the fingers. The molars are flatter and wider, allowing them to grind bamboo stems.
The head, although huge, is proportional to the body. The muzzle is blunt, on the top of the head big ears. Stand out standard black color on a white background: glasses around the eyes, markings on the paws, shoulders and ears. The apparent calm of the bear is deceptive. With his sharp claws, he can cause significant harm to the enemy. A characteristic feature is the protruding thumb on the paws.
Where do pandas live and their characteristic behavior?
IN natural nature, pandas have limited distribution perimeter - rain forests southern and central China. The approximate population area of the mainland is 30 thousand square meters. km. These are rather solitary individuals that do not encroach on the territory of their fellows. Each one marks its possessions, leaving scratches on the tree bark. They are great at climbing trees and swimming, but prefer to live on land.
They are most active at night. During the day they lie down in hollows or rock crevices, where they remain in deep hibernation.
There are a number interesting facts lifestyle related:
It seems that bears are very silent, but they make unusual sounds when communicating. It's reminiscent of baby goats bleating. When irritated or angry, they growl or hum threateningly. Chomping indicates that the bear is in a wary state; it is better not to approach it. Puppies may squeak and squeal.
Giant panda breeding
With the onset of the breeding season, females become more active. To attract males, they emit a specific smell. According to scientific observations, it is precisely this behavior that is characteristic of sexually inclined individuals. The male representatives begin to compete for primacy, trying to win back the bear they like.
The mating season lasts from March to May. Estrus lasts 2–4 days, when the females’ previous energy subsides. They become overly restless and lose their appetite. After mating, pregnancy occurs, lasting about 5–6 weeks. Cubs are born in late summer or autumn. Babies appear blind and defenseless, with a light fluff. The weight of each varies between 50–160 grams.
Mama bear takes careful care of her babies. Helps them find a comfortable position for sucking milk. Newborns are applied to their nipples up to 15 times a day. The duration of each feeding is at least 30 minutes. At 3 weeks of age, they can already open their eyes, and at 3–4 months they begin to move independently. The cubs stay with their mother for up to 18 months., and are weaned from milk at 45–46 weeks.
It should be noted that pandas do not reproduce well in captivity. Most often twins are born. Of these, the female chooses the strongest one and takes care of him. The second one usually dies.
What do giant pandas eat?
The name “bamboo bear” speaks for itself. These animals are considered carnivores, although their main diet is plant-based. They have adapted to use the order 30 varieties of bamboo trees. Roots, young shoots, even old stems are eaten. with their own strong jaws They grind hard areas of wood.
Their digestive system fully tuned in to digesting such raw materials. The esophagus and stomach are covered with a mucous membrane, which prevents injury from splinters. Since vegetation is poorly digestible, bears have to eat up to 15–18 kg per day. Thus, they can maintain their vitality. Throughout their waking hours, about 10–12 hours a day, they chew constantly.
A meager diet does not allow giant pandas to store energy for a long time. This results in a limited perimeter where they can live. I just don’t have enough strength for long treks. Sometimes pandas try:
Water is taken mainly from bamboo stems. Every day they go down to the reservoirs, and there they absorb the volume they lack.
When kept artificially their nutritious menu is more varied: sugar cane, rice porridge, fruits, protein biscuit, apples, carrots, potatoes.
Today, the average lifespan of pandas is 25–30 years. As soon as the world learned about such strange bears, the number of poaching raids increased. The skins of these valuable animals are constantly hunted. Despite the severe penalties for killing pandas, the high cost of prey is overwhelming. In zoos, this is one of the most popular specimens, always attracting attention.
The panda, also known as the bamboo bear, is a member of the raccoon family of mammals. The only species of the genus. By appearance very similar to a bear, but it is distinguished from a real bear by a different structure of teeth and comparatively a long tail. This bear-like animal long time was considered a "huge raccoon", due to common anatomical features with the red panda, which was considered a raccoon unconditionally. But simple peasants in China have long called it “polar bear” or “bamboo bear,” which turned out to be closer to the truth, which taxonomists figured out not so long ago.
Pandas live in dense thickets bamboo forests of China, Kalimantan and Indonesia, which are both shelter and the main source of food for these rare animals. To completely saturate the adult body of a “bamboo bear,” about eighteen kilograms of young shoots and juicy bamboo stems are required per day, which the animal grinds with its jaws. This type of food is very low in nutrition, as a result of which the animal is forced to chew throughout its waking hours, which ranges from ten to twelve hours. In addition, food can include carrion, small animals and birds, which the bear eats very rarely.
In the wild, the “bamboo bear” lives alone, and only once a year, during the mating season, it meets with a female or male to prolong the offspring. The result of which is the birth of one, rarely two, naked, helpless and blind cub. The eyes of a newborn bear cub open only after a month. At the expiration of three weeks, the baby panda begins to grow hair, acquiring its signature color and “glasses”, and its weight is no more than 175 grams, which is rapidly gaining and already in two months reaches 3-4 kilograms, and by mature age– 17-160 kilograms.
But pandas living in the wild have nothing to envy: humans, while developing territories, are deforesting, which is why most individuals do not have time to find their partner during the short three-day mating season and are left without offspring, thereby reducing their population, which numbers about seven hundred individuals. Therefore, the panda has long been listed in the Red Book, and every newborn is of great value and joy.
IN given time The panda is considered a national treasure of China, a symbol of friendship and peace, due to which most individuals live under the strictest protection national reserves in the southwestern regions of the country.
The giant panda, cat bear, or bamboo bear is one of the rarest animals on the planet. The panda is considered a national treasure of China, and killing it can result in execution. The state leases pandas to zoos in other countries, and all babies born in these zoos will belong to China. Prostozoo found out useful information, what is interesting about these funny, but, unfortunately, endangered animals.
For a long time, scientists attributed wild pandas to the raccoon family: it was believed that she was a huge raccoon. But genetic tests have shown that the giant panda is still a bear with its closest relative - the spectacled bear, which lives in South America. It turns out that the giant panda is a subspecies of bear, and not a member of the large panda family.
Source: http://www.animalsglobe.ru
Previously, giant pandas were distributed throughout almost the entire territory of China and Vietnam. At the end of 2014, the number of pandas on planet Earth fluctuated around 1,600 animals, and they live only in the mountain forests of the Chinese provinces of Shaanxi, Gansu and Sichuan and some areas of Tibet. To live, giant pandas choose impenetrable bamboo forests at an altitude of 2000-4000 meters above the sea, but sometimes, in hungry winters, they can descend to a height of 800 m to search for fresh shoots or bamboo stems.
Black and white bears chose bamboo thickets as their home not only because it is their main food, but also because of the good shelter provided by dense bamboo trunks up to four meters high. The habitat of males is wider than that of females, because females settle on especially impassable hillsides for better protection offspring.
Source:www.globalsingapore.sg
The number of pandas is decreasing due to deforestation and poaching. Fur big panda is very highly valued in Japan, and they are willing to pay up to $180,000 for it. The Japanese use the skins of these cute animals as sleeping mats and believe that dreams seen on such a skin are prophetic.
Hunting pandas is prohibited in China, and killing an animal can, at best, result in life imprisonment. However, main reason The extinction of the bamboo bear means total deforestation, its habitat.
Source: http://www.theguardian.com
Black- polar bear is forced to wander all the time, because its main food, bamboo, completely dies out after flowering. Bamboo blooms rarely, once every 20-100 years, but flowering covers large areas, and the next generation of bamboo will appear in this area only in five to ten years.
Pandas have begun to appear along migration routes settlements and farms, which made her resettlement impossible. The animal was practically confined to small areas.
The giant panda has a very unusual body structure and coloring. The cute big guy weighs from 17 to 160 kilograms, and reaches a length of 1.2-1.8 meters. The panda's tail is long for a bear - 10-15 centimeters. The hind legs are much shorter than the front legs and have long, sharp claws. On the paws, at the base of each toe, there are well-developed bare pads that help the panda skillfully hold on even on thin branches.
On its front paws, the bamboo bear has as many as six toes - five of which are ordinary, and the sixth, the “thumb,” is a well-developed carpal bone. Six fingers help the panda masterfully cope even with thin bamboo stems.
Source:www.ritsu.ru
There is a legend about how giant pandas acquired such an unusual fur coloring. Legend has it that once upon a time there lived a girl who loved bears very much and took great care of them. But now I've passed heavy rain, the girl fell ill and died. The pandas grieved so much, cried so much and rubbed their eyes with their paws, clasped their heads with their paws, hugged each other, that the paws stained in the ground after the rain left marks on their skins - black spots around the eyes, black ears, blackened shoulders, front and back paws. The animals never managed to wash the skin back.
Source: http://www.epochtimes.com.ua
Although the giant panda is considered an omnivore, its main diet is bamboo - the animal eats approximately 30 kilograms of this plant per day, preferring 30 types of bamboo out of 300 growing in China. An adult can eat up to ten tons of bamboo per year. The animal's esophagus and stomach are covered with elastic mucous tissue, which protects it from damage by hard bamboo slivers.
In zoos, giant pandas are fed special “cookies” made from bamboo. But it's digestible plant food The black and white bear is much worse off than the herbivores: out of everything eaten - only 17%. Therefore, the panda eats almost all the time to fill the body with nutrients.
Source: http://www.epochtimes.com.ua
In addition to bamboo, the giant panda eats mushrooms, grass, tree roots and bark, and plant tubers. She gets protein by eating the eggs of birds, rodents, fish and other small animals - if she can catch them, since the panda is not agile enough. Black and white bears are not averse to eating carrion.
Pandas rarely drink, because succulent bamboo provides them with enough moisture, but if there is a river near the bear’s habitat, they are happy to go to it for a watering hole.
Source: bradleysanimalplace.wordpress.com
Giant pandas are solitary creatures. They are very calm and even phlegmatic. Each panda has its own territory, marked with secretion from the odorous glands. Males allow crossing of their borders, and females guard their territory very carefully.Pandas are nocturnal animals; during the day they rest or sleep in sheltered places among rocks or in trees. These hulks are real experts in tree climbing: they can climb the most high peak tree and walk on the thinnest branches. The animals' favorite pastime is to lie down to rest at the fork of branches.
Pandas do not like to swim, although they can swim well. Bears love cleanliness and wash themselves by running through shallow water and spraying themselves with splashes.
Pandas are so cute, charming, “plush”, and seemingly completely harmless. Children and adults adore them; images of funny animals that look like bears and raccoons are often used to decorate children’s clothes and clothes for babies, and photos of pandas often decorate the desktop on a computer or phone. What kind of animal is a panda and why is it famous?
The big panda welcomes visitors to the site:) Panda: photo of a big panda in the zoo in winter. 
Young panda.
The answer to the question is quite simple: pandas live in China and eat bamboo. And in more detail, it turns out that animals are rented to other countries for millions of dollars a year, killing an animal in China is punishable by death, and even adorable bears are disgusting parents.
What does a panda look like?
The traditional name for a panda is the giant panda, also known as the bamboo bear. The animal belongs to the bear family and forms a single genus and species, which is divided into 2 subspecies.
Giant panda on a tree. Giant panda subspecies
The type subspecies - Ailuropoda melanoleuca - is a large, massive animal, with a body length from 120 to 180 cm and a weight from 17 to 160 kg. Male pandas are somewhat larger and heavier than females. The panda has thick white fur, only the paws, ears and fur around the eyes are colored black. One of characteristic features The giant panda's tail is long enough for a bear, which grows to 10 - 15 cm.
The special structure of their limbs allows these bears to easily cope with bamboo shoots. On hind legs animals grow sharp claws, and on the soles and base of the fingers there are special bare pads that help to hold the bamboo stem firmly. On the forelimbs, in addition to the five ordinary fingers, a sixth “thumb” grows, as an evolutionarily formed tool for plucking the thinnest shoots.
Funny big panda on a tree. 
A giant panda is resting in the zoo. 
A giant panda eats bamboo. 
A giant panda hung on a tree branch. 
Giant panda in the grass. Another subspecies, Ailuropoda melanoleuca qinlingensis, was only discovered in 1960 and the current population is about 300 individuals. It is quite simple to distinguish animals from the nominate subspecies: these bears are smaller, and the black color of their fur replaces light brown, which is most likely due to a gene mutation.
Representative of the subspecies Ailuropoda melanoleuca qinlingensis. Little red panda
Among numerous photos Pandas can be found as a small interesting animal with red fur, a fluffy tail and a sharp muzzle. This little panda, the only one modern representative panda family. This is the animal the creators of the browser had in mind Mozilla Firefox, although the recognizable image of the animal could not be embodied in the company’s logo and it was replaced with an ordinary fox.
History of research
Inhabitants of the mountainous regions of Tibet and central China, giant pandas became known in Europe only in the mid-19th century, and the classification of “spotted bears” has long been the subject of scientific debate. Initially, scientists considered the giant panda to be the oldest representative of the bear family, from which all modern species descended.
But in 1936, the American scientist William Gregory discovered in animals a lot of features characteristic of raccoons and decided that the bamboo bear was actually a huge raccoon.
And only DNA tests made it possible to prove that the panda is still a bear, closely related to the South American spectacled bear.
A group of pandas at the zoo. Nutritional Features
The esophagus and stomach of pandas are protected by a special mucous tissue that prevents damage to the digestive organs by sharp bamboo slivers. The daily diet of an adult animal is up to 30 kg of bamboo, although when there is a lack of basic food and as a source of protein, pandas use small birds and animals, eggs, insects and even carrion.
The giant panda eats bamboo. 
Giant pandas at a watering hole. 
Giant panda on a tree. 
A giant panda is resting on a tree. Reproduction
Bamboo bears do not hibernate, but in the summer they climb high into the mountains, avoiding overheating and choosing a place to give birth to their offspring. These animals are solitary animals; they reach reproductive age at 4–8 years and form a pair only during the mating season, which occurs in the spring.
The female bears offspring for 95 - 160 days. 1 - 2 tiny bear cubs are born, weighing from 90 to 130 g. However, unlike their closest relatives, panda cubs are not born naked, but covered fine fur. Maternal instinct extends only to the first cub, unless it is stillborn. The mother abandons the second bear cub.
Giant panda with cubs. 
Giant panda in the zoo. 
Big panda family. 
Giant panda with cub. In captivity, pandas breed very rarely, and even in conditions wildlife the female gives birth again only after 2 years. Therefore, poor reproduction and small population size (about 2 thousand individuals) make it possible to classify the panda as a vulnerable species.
GIFs with pandas
GIF: panda eating bamboo. 
GIF: young pandas. See also:
The giant panda, or bei-shung, which means "polar bear" in Chinese, is a very ancient and rare animal. In its homeland, China, the panda is so revered that since the second half of the 20th century it has become national symbol Great Celestial Empire (that is, China). There, a person faces the death penalty for killing this animal.
This funny animal was not included in any family of animals - both bears and raccoons. By the way, until recently they were attributed to the latter, but as a result of various tests, including genetic ones, it was proven that the giant panda is more closely related to clumsy bears than to raccoons.
West scientific world I learned about the existence of the giant panda quite late - only in 1869, while in Chinese literature the first mentions of these animals are found already 3000 years ago (in the Book of History and the Book of Songs).
Range and habitat
The territory inhabited by pandas is small. They are found in the mountainous regions of the Chinese provinces of Sichuan, Gansu and Tibet. Although previously they also lived in Indochina and on the island. Kalimantan. Giant pandas chose dense bamboo forests as their home.
Giant panda habitat 
Bamboo scaffolding They live in mountainous areas, at an altitude of approximately 1200 to 4500 meters above sea level. m.. With the onset of winter, they descend to a height of about 800 meters at sea level, where the climate in the cold season is more favorable.
These good-natured teddy bears
The size of an adult panda is quite impressive. Males are slightly larger than females. Their weight reaches 85-125 kg, while females weigh 70-100 kg. The panda's body length is 1.5-1.8 m.
The panda, unlike other bears, has a fairly long tail. Its length reaches 12 cm. The whole body is covered with thick and soft fur. On a light, almost white background, there are dark areas: around the eyes in the form of “glasses”, on the hind and front legs, on the shoulders and on the ears. The tip of the tail is also black.
Black ears, glasses and paws Despite its good-natured “plush” appearance, the panda’s paws are armed with sharp claws, and like all bears, the giant panda, in cases of attack, can seriously injure a person.
Big tail Nutrition
The giant panda got its second name, “bamboo bear,” due to its diet, which consists of 99% bamboo shoots and stems. Although animal food, such as eggs and insects, periodically appears on the panda's menu. This food is the main source of protein. In addition to bamboo, bears will not refuse saffron and iris bulbs. In zoos, they are pampered with sugar cane, apples, carrots, thin rice porridge and other products.
To get enough of such low-nutrient food, pandas have to eat up to 18 kg of bamboo per day. For the same reason, they are very slow and try to move only when necessary. Pandas set off on the road only if food supplies in this area are already running low.
This bear handles its food with extraordinary dexterity. Sometimes you wonder how such thick paws can handle thin bamboo stems so masterfully. A kind of sixth “finger”, which is a modified wrist bone, helps him hold the stalk.
Paedas drink little, since most of the moisture is obtained from succulent bamboo shoots, which are almost half water. But whenever possible, they still try to quench their thirst in a small river or other body of water.
Lifestyle
Giant pandas are good tree climbers, but prefer to lead a terrestrial lifestyle. They are also good swimmers. They are active at any time of the day. It takes up to 12 hours a day to search for and chew food.
IN winter time, for a short period they may fall into a state resembling hibernation, but this cannot be called real bear hibernation.
Each individual, be it a female or a male, has its own territory, which is tirelessly guarded, especially by females.
Playing pandas 
Giant pandas prefer to live alone and pair up only for the period of mating and raising offspring.
They communicate with each other using various sounds, although at first glance it seems that these are rather silent animals. Friendly greeting“comrade” is expressed in a kind of bleating, irritation - in a roar or a loud hum. The cubs, in order to attract their mother, begin to whine and squeal. Showing teeth while quickly opening and closing teeth means that it is better not to approach the panda, as it expresses dissatisfaction and threat.
Reproduction
Giant pandas give birth to 1-2 cubs. If two are born, then often natural conditions habitat, the female chooses only one, stronger baby, and begins to care for him. The second one dies. Zoos have developed their own tactics for this case.
Female with cub 
One week old The workers take the “refuser” and then after a couple of days switch the cubs’ places. And this replacement continues throughout the entire feeding period. Thus, zoo workers manage to raise 2 cubs. After all, there are VERY FEW of these animals left in the world – no more than 1600 individuals.
The breeding season begins in spring. After mating, the development of the embryo may not begin immediately, but after a certain time - 1.5-4 months. This feature is unique defense mechanism for kids, because they may be born at the most favorable time climate period. Average duration pregnancy is approximately 135 days.
Newborn babies are blind and helpless. After birth, the mother helps the baby find the nipple. For the first few days, the female does not leave the baby for a minute. At week 47, milk feeding stops and the cubs begin to switch to adult food. Until they are 1.5 years old, they are with their mother, who happily takes part in their games.
5 month old giant panda cub Puberty in bamboo bears occurs at 5-7 years. Life expectancy in captivity is quite long - up to 26 years, while in nature they live only up to 14-16 years.
Cubs Panda and man
Due to their extreme small numbers, giant pandas are not only listed in the IUCN Red List, but are also protected by all sorts of strict laws (especially in China).
Previously, pandas were exterminated because of their valuable fur, but now this is not worth even thinking about. In nature natural enemies they have little - only leopards and red wolves, but they are already rare in those parts. The main reason for the gradual decline in their numbers is the disappearance natural environment habitat, i.e. bamboo groves and forests. This occurs either due to human intervention or natural reasons.
Bamboo grows for about 20-25 years, after flowering and seeds appear, it dies. Thus, entire forests “die out” at once. New shoots from seeds will begin to appear only after 2-3 years. Therefore, for many animals that are entirely dependent on bamboo, such periods are disastrous.
The giant panda is very popular. She is the main character of various animated films and is depicted in emblems and symbols. various organization, a prime example of which is the World Wildlife Fund (WWF).
