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Giant panda, or bamboo bear, or giant panda. Panda - some interesting facts

The Qinling Mountains, in the heart of central China, stretch for more than 120 thousand kilometers. It is a ridge covered with lush vegetation, dividing the north and south of China. Northern slopes hold back cold winter winds, creating fogs that linger all year round. It is an area of endless rain, difficult terrain and hostile weather. It's a rare person who comes here and sees the most remarkable inhabitant of the local mountains - the giant panda.

The highest peaks of the Qinling Mountains, above 3500 meters. Dense thickets bamboo, the main food source for pandas, line these ridges. Bamboo is difficult to digest and pandas only eat a small portion of what they eat. White hairs on the bark of trees are signs of a panda. Bamboo forests provide a unique habitat for some of China's amazing wildlife.

These animals are vegetarians, but their ancestors were carnivores. Actually them digestive system, is still similar to the digestive system of carnivores and is not very suitable for digesting bamboo. As a result, they only absorb about 17% of what they ingest. This inefficiency means that a giant panda has to spend up to 16 hours a day eating as much as 18 kilograms of bamboo just to feed itself. This is the same as if a person ate almost forty loaves of bread a day. Pandas have evolved into some of the most specialized mammals in the world. Bamboo makes up about ninety-nine percent of their diet.

It is believed that giant pandas split from carnivorous bears about 22 million years ago. These early ancestors lived in China and Vietnam. One of the weirder adaptations of pandas is the appearance of an extra finger. This pseudofinger is actually a branch of the thin carpal bone, a radial samoid bone, as found in all carnivores. This makes it possible to grasp bamboo trunks with six fingers.

Pandas often take naps in trees during the day, but do not hibernate like other bears. Only one thousand six hundred individuals have survived throughout the world. It was found that the giant pandas that live in the Qinling Mountains may be a new subspecies. It is assumed that they separated from a group of bears from the Sichuan mountains.

At the beginning of the breeding season, females rub special anal glands against tree trunks to mark the trunks with their scent. This lets the males know that they are ready to mate. The short tail of females, like a brush, applies their scent to the trunk. These secretions contain valuable information about the sex of a particular individual and its health.

Pandas can sleep anywhere, even on the ground. But more often they climb somewhere higher, away from other forest inhabitants.

As with all animals, males fight for females. These fights are quite brutal. Sharp teeth and merciless claws are used; bears bite and beat their opponents. Sometimes it comes to a group fight, when up to five males fight for one female. But only one of them will be the winner. In battle, pandas destroy everything in their path. The loser may be injured and sometimes even killed. But everything may be in vain, and the female may not accept the winner. Outside of their own free will, females are exceptionally picky when it comes to choosing a mate, making them very difficult to breed. In fact, such discrimination is necessary. Over the course of her life, a female can give birth to 5 to 8 cubs. For example, an adult fly lays up to a thousand eggs at a time. Therefore, it is important that she choose the male with the best genes.

April is peak breeding season for pandas. The competition between males at this time is very strong, because each female responds to their courtship for only a short time.

In the Qinling Mountains, only a few pandas live, and females only reach sexual maturity at the age of five. Other bears raise their cubs for a year, but giant pandas raise their cubs for two years.

At birth, giant pandas are tiny, weighing about 100 grams and about 18 centimeters long, i.e. small enough to fit in a man's palm. With the exception of marsupials, they are the smallest newborns compared to the size of their mother. The cubs are pink, almost hairless and blind. Just a week after birth, they already have a thin layer of fur. The cub can suckle for half an hour up to 14 times a day. The mother's strength is also drained with milk, and although this is not safe, she must leave it for 2-3 hours to refresh herself. When the mother leaves, the babies may mistakenly believe that they have been abandoned.

Adults have few enemies, but their cubs can be attacked by leopards, wild dogs and even predator birds. If the mother does not eat well, she will exhaust herself, and this can even lead to the death of the cub. But whenever possible, they feed on plant bulbs, bird eggs and small rodents.

Like a human child, a panda needs constant attention. Twins are born from time to time, but the second cub rarely survives without human intervention.

For about six months the baby will be completely dependent on mother's milk, then will gradually begin to switch to bamboo. Until two years old, the cub is not independent.

Giant pandas have been a treasure of China for over two thousand years, but it is only relatively recently that they have become known to the West. French missionary Armand David bought a panda skin from a hunter in 1864, but the first live panda was seen in the West only at the beginning of the 20th century. This caused a wave of hunting expeditions. In the 1920s, giant panda skins were a valuable prize. Today, giant pandas are protected; killing them will have serious consequences. But now pandas are faced with a new threat - the destruction of their habitat. Pandas are modest loners, they avoid contact with people, but human development breaks up their environment and if their path to healthy bamboo is cut off, they simply starve.

Ecology

Basics:

Giant pandas, or bamboo bears as they are often called, are the most... rare representatives bear family.

These playful animals reach a length of 1.5 meters from nose to tip of tail and weigh between 100 and 150 kilograms.

Although adults are quite large, newborn pandas are very tiny - about 15 centimeters in length. The mother takes care of the offspring until the cubs learn to travel independently. After this, the young pandas leave the den and begin to live independently. Cubs begin to crawl at about 10 weeks of age, and after 21 weeks they can already move confidently. The mother takes care of the babies for 18 months, but they begin to eat bamboo only at the age of 7-9 months.

Pandas are known for their unusual black and white skin coloring; they have black eyes, legs, ears and shoulders, and the rest of the body is white.

Although adult pandas feed exclusively on bamboo leaves, their digestive system is more similar to that of a carnivore than a herbivore. Pandas' digestive systems are unable to digest some of the components of bamboo, so pandas have to eat a lot of leaves from these plants in order to cover daily norm. Adult pandas eat 12 to 38 kilograms of bamboo daily.

Where do they live?

Pandas live in deciduous and coniferous forests temperate zone, where bamboo can be found in abundance to satisfy their insane appetite. Today, giant pandas are found in about 20 mountain forest areas in the Chinese provinces of Sichuan, Shaanxi and Gansu.

Conservation status: Endangered

Giant pandas are listed as an endangered species in the Red Book. According to 2004 data in wildlife There are only 1,600 individuals left, 300 pandas live in zoos and nurseries.

Big panda is protected by China's Wildlife Protection Law, which makes poaching or smuggling panda skins punishable by life in prison or even the death penalty.

Like many large animals, pandas reproduce very slowly, making it difficult for these animals to increase their numbers. Females can reproduce only once every 2 years, so on average they give birth to 5-8 cubs throughout their lives.

The panda is in danger of extinction for several reasons. First, they are at risk of habitat loss due to deforestation. The territories inhabited by pandas covered an area of about 5.1 million hectares in the 1950s. In the 1990s, the area of these territories decreased to 1.3 million hectares. The loss of territory began to slow down by 1998, thanks in part to new laws that banned deforestation in panda habitats.

Despite the fact that the animals are protected, their numbers are still declining due to human influence and climate change.

Pandas eat 12 hours a day.

Pandas have what is called a "pseudo thumb"This extra body part is not actually a finger. It is a carpal bone covered with skin that helps the bear easily handle bamboo branches.

The weight of a newborn panda bear is one-eight hundredth of the weight of its mother, it is the smallest newborn in relation to the mother's weight among all animals, second only to some marsupials, for example, kangaroos.

Unlike other bears temperate climate, pandas do not hibernate.

By Chinese tradition Panda cubs do not receive names until they are 100 days old.

Pandas are so cute that they even became the symbol of the World Wildlife Fund in 1961. However, pandas themselves need protection and care, since they show very little interest in procreation.

Didn't match?

In total, no more than 200 pandas live in captivity. And the birth of every new baby is a great joy. According to the head of the research team at the San Diego Zoo, Don Lindburg, breeding pandas is almost a feat, because these animals “are not very eager to reproduce.”

According to various estimates, there are no more than two thousand of them left in the wild. Pandas are solitary animals, and while the female is ready to mate (and this lasts no more than three days a year), the male still needs to be “in right time and in the right place." In zoos, it is often necessary to resort to artificial insemination - it is thanks to this procedure that most babies are born in captivity. In 2006, a Thai zoo went even further: pandas who did not want to reproduce were shown a training video, National Geographic reported on this with reference to information Agency"Reuters".

Simulator

It is almost always not easy to quickly understand that a panda is finally in an “interesting” situation - for at least two months, zoologists are in the dark about the success of their “operation.” The fact is that in the body of a panda, like hundreds of other mammals, after fertilization, embryonic diapause can occur - a phenomenon in which cell division in the embryo slows down or stops altogether. A panda may look and act as if she is preparing for motherhood - and this will be confirmed by her hormone levels - but the pregnancy will ultimately turn out to be false.
This, for example, happened in the Chinese nursery of Chengdu, whose management, having discovered the first signs of pregnancy in the panda Ai Hin, decided to broadcast her birth online for the first time in history. Future mother for several months they were surrounded by increased comfort and care: an air-conditioned room, 24-hour care and the most tasty food. The bear liked the new “rules of the game” so much that she diligently played along. Moving slowly, she demonstrated the full “gravity” of her position, devouring selected bamboo stalks with appetite, fresh fruits and sweet buns. By the time the mistake was discovered, Ai Hin had become a TV star and the favorite of millions of viewers, for which she was “forgiven” by the hapless nursery employees.

Successful disguise

Some babies born in captivity may then be sent on a “big voyage” and released into bamboo groves. In order for a grown-up panda to quickly settle into a new place, scientists from the first minutes of a bear cub’s life strive to accurately reproduce the conditions of the natural environment, sometimes deciding on very creative moves. Thus, every morning at a Chinese research center, staff working with pandas put aside their white coats and put on plush suits. black and white bears. Observation, medical examination and feeding of baby pandas are carried out ... by their adult relatives - scientists hope that they will be able to carry out the babies who will decide that they are under the supervision of caring relatives.

Wasted effort

Many attempts to reintroduce pandas into the wild have failed. So, in 2007, a five-year-old bear named Xiang Xiang was released by Chinese zoologists to live freely. For three years he was trained and prepared for life in new conditions.

In particular, scientists made “forays” into the territories bordering the reserve, carrying the panda in a brightly colored shoulder box, the cover of which resembles a patchwork quilt made using the patchwork technique. There the bear cub was released for self-study terrain. Unfortunately, all the scientists’ efforts were in vain: some time later, Xiang Xiang was found dead in a remote part of the reserve. What caused his death is unknown, but it forced him to tighten security measures. The lives of released pandas began to be monitored using hidden cameras.

Mind games

Psychologist and curator of panda research at Zoo Atlanta Rebecca Snyder has her own view on the reason for human failures to adapt cubs born in captivity to new living conditions. She believes that the mind, or more precisely memory, which is based on spatial orientation and “visual cues,” prevents released animals from finding food. They need to find approximately 13 kilograms of bamboo per day, and in an unfamiliar area this turns out to be an impossible task.

Sissy

In the wild, baby pandas stay with their mother for up to 2.5 years. The study by Rebecca Snyder and her colleagues is aimed, in particular, at proving how early separation from their mother negatively affects the development and adaptation of pandas. The animals participating in the experiment were divided into two groups: the first included babies who were deprived of maternal care at 4 months of age, the second included the lucky ones who had been with their mother for more than a year. Scientists were able to find out that the cubs are very dependent on the parent, for example, they prefer to play with her, and not with other babies.

Little male pandas hone their behavioral skills in a playful fight with their mother, which adult life increases their chances of emerging victorious in the fight for a female. Bear cubs who are close to their mother devote more time to searching for food. They not only learn to choose the most delicious stems, but also to clean them correctly, while kids left without parental supervision prefer to lead an inactive lifestyle.

Sounds of "mu"

Adult pandas can make dozens of different sounds. For example, the standard greeting resembles a chirp. Wanting to give a warning, the panda hums, and to demonstrate rage and aggression, it barks. In particular, research by Zoo Atlanta biologist Dr. Benjamin Charlton is devoted to vocalization issues. According to his report, published in the journal Animal Behavior, during the mating season, pandas make sounds reminiscent of bleats, with males using them to convey information about their size, and females about their age. In addition, to attract a partner, bears snort, moan and squeal

Pandas are very cute animals. Videos with them gain millions of views and thousands of comments in a matter of days. Looking at these wonderful bears, you immediately feel the desire to cuddle them. However, it is almost impossible to see them in nature, since they lead a very secretive lifestyle. Panda lovers can only admire their images on the Internet or in zoos and learn many interesting facts about these funny representatives of the fauna.

Whose relatives

People's interest in these animals has always been heightened. About who they were considered before scientific research, it becomes clear from the names that local residents called them. Translated from Chinese, “Xiongmao,” as the Chinese called these animals with black spots around their eyes, translates as “cat-bear.” Latin specific name Ailuropoda melanoleuca translated means “black and white catpaw”.

When scientists observed the giant panda for the first time and tried to determine its taxonomy, they came to the conclusion that it was a giant raccoon. Hundreds of years later, they had an accurate method in their arsenal - a genetic test, which helped identify the error. It turned out that the giant panda is a bear. Her " cousin"is a spectacled bear that can be found in the wild in South America.

The small and big pandas have the maximum similarity in the name, since the small panda is not so close to bears and belongs to the panda family. And the red one actually comes from marten-like ones.

Molecular and genetic analyzes have shown that the genes of pandas and dogs are 80% identical, which is a very large figure. Even with humans, these animals had 68% of similar genes, so to some extent we can also be considered their distant relatives.

Where live

The homeland of these cute representatives of the fauna is China. They are not distributed evenly throughout the country, but live only in certain western provinces - Tibet, Gansu and Sichuan. Preferring comfortable conditions, in the summer they rise to mountainous areas to a height of about 4 thousand m, where even those with such thick fur can feel cool, not hot. IN winter time on the contrary, they descend to the level of 800 m so as not to freeze high in the mountains.

Their number is so small that they have long been listed in the Red Book. According to the latest data, there are 1590-1600 giant pandas in total, of which 300 are inhabitants of zoos. Since 1962, hunting them has been prohibited at the government level, as a state treasure and symbol of the country, and punishment for violating this ban is punishable capital punishment- death penalty.

Despite all the tricks, their numbers continue to decline steadily, so the main hopes are placed on representatives living in zoos. By the way, it is impossible to buy this interesting animal for a foreign zoo: it can only be rented. The rental cost is very high - $1 million per year. Moreover, according to the terms of the contract, all cubs born abroad belong to China. Zoos around the world willingly agree to such conditions, because the presence of a bamboo bear in the list of pets ensures a constant flow of visitors. This animal is even listed in the Guinness Book of Records as the cutest animal on earth.

Lifespan

In the wild, a giant panda lives from 14 to 20 years, and a red panda lives from 8 to 10 years. In a zoo, their lifespan increases to 26 and 19 years, respectively.

Scientists are worried that the lifespan of this species may be reduced. This is due to the fact that the presence of bamboo forests, which are natural environment habitat for these animals is sharply declining: from the 1950s to the 1990s alone, their area decreased threefold due to human deforestation.

Longest among representatives of this species for this moment lived a female Ming-Ming who lived in the Chinese Guangdong Zoo. She died of old age at the age of 35. If we compare this to a person, then by human standards her age was 110 years.

Bamboo bears have a lot interesting features. For example, giant pandas have a formation on their paws called the “sixth toe.” It helps the animal pluck bamboo, but, in fact, does not consist of phalanges, but is one of the carpal bones of the paws, which is separated from the rest for greater convenience.

Little pandas have it too characteristic: They resemble the movie character Wolverine with their retractable claws that are located between the fingers. Thanks to these claws, it is easier for the animal to climb trees and tear off bamboo.

The teeth of the bamboo bear are also interesting. There are 40 of them in total, but what is surprising is not the number, but the size: they are seven times larger than human ones. Powerful jaws allow you to thoroughly chew food, and, if necessary, protect yourself from enemies in the wild.

By the way, the defenseless disposition and friendliness that everyone knows about these animals is characteristic only of specimens living in zoos. It is extremely difficult to find this bear in the wild, and the one who meets him will definitely not have the opportunity to hug the animal, since his reaction to people and large animals is almost always aggressive. Displeasing a giant panda is below average fun, as its weight ranges up to 125 kg. The heavyweight record holder was a male whose weight was 160 kg.

Another interesting fact is that the black circles around the eyes, which give the muzzle a special charm and cuteness in the eyes of people, in the wild are a means of scaring off enemies.

Food lovers

The known name of this species is bamboo bear. However, the diet may include not only plant food, but also meat “dishes”: medium-sized birds, animals and carrion. But bamboo still remains their favorite food. They spend half the day eating bamboo, and during this time they can eat up to 38 kg of stems. The entire digestive system is adapted to such nutrition, therefore, in order not to damage the mucous membrane with chips of a hard plant, it is covered with a thick elastic layer of cells.

Bamboo – low calorie product, so animals cannot get much energy from it. It is for this reason that they tend to lead a sedentary lifestyle that helps preserve strength. For the same reason, they do not hibernate, like most of their relatives: plant foods do not contribute to the accumulation of fat reserves, which will allow them to sleep peacefully for a long time.

About reproduction

Bamboo bears become sexually mature at the age of 5-8 years. Females are capable of fertilization only a couple of days a year, which complicates the reproduction process, especially in captivity. People are trying their best to somehow help and intensify this process. Several zoos around the world have practiced showing animals videos of sexual intercourse to stimulate their interest in procreation, but this has not brought much results.

Pregnancy lasts 97-163 days. This difference in timing is due to the fact that the fetus may temporarily stop developing until the required amount of food appears, normal temperature and the most suitable conditions for the birth of offspring.

There is one curious case associated with pregnancy, which became known throughout the world. The fact is that pregnant females in zoos are treated in a special way; all their whims are immediately fulfilled, which Ai Hin, a panda who was considered pregnant, took advantage of. She carefully pretended to be expectant mother, was slow, demonstrating how difficult it was for her to bear the burden of pregnancy. For many months, Ai Hin ate with pleasure the best food, provided to her not only by the zoo administration, but also by many television viewers who watched the “pregnant” woman on television. When the deception was discovered, the simulator was generously forgiven, since she became a favorite of the public.

Kids

At birth, the cubs of this animal weigh only 1/800 of the weight of their mother, so birth is so easy that the mother in labor might not notice them if not for maternal instinct. Immediately after birth, babies are completely white, and characteristic black spots appear only after a week.

One female gives birth to one or two cubs at a time, but she feeds only one of them, choosing the healthier, larger and stronger one. The second dies from hunger during the first days of life. So cruel natural selection conceived by nature because one mother does not have enough milk for two sucklings.

At first, the babies are completely blind, and before the onset three months they cannot walk normally. Mother's milk remains the main food for children up to 7-8 months, and only after this age do they begin to add bamboo to their diet.

Mothers raise their children for 2-3 years. During this time, they are very kind to their offspring, put the cubs to sleep, just like people, and teach them everything that can be useful in adulthood.

Repertoire

There are many different sounds in the active panda vocabulary. Mothers communicating with their children purr specifically, and the greeting of adults is similar to the chirping of birds. When the animal is hostile, it barks, as large dogs do, and the warning signal resembles a horn.

Scientists have studied in detail the arsenal of sounds made by a bamboo bear. It was possible to establish interesting facts: when bamboo bears begin their mating season, they begin to sing. But these songs sound a lot like bleating. To human ears, these songs are perceived the same, but with the help of such roulades, males tell the “brides” about their size, and females report their age. They may also make “flirtatious” snorts, moans and squeals.

Big hugs

A few years ago, the Internet was rocked by sensational news, which at first many took as a joke: a research institute located in Sichuan province needed an employee with an official entry in the work book as a “panda hugger.”

There are certain requirements for a person who decides to try his hand at this field: he must be over 22 years old, love and be able to photograph bamboo bears during games and daily procedures, and know enough about their lifestyle and habits. But the most interesting requirement is the desire of the applicant to often hug, cuddle and pick up these animals.

Such work is not easy, since it does not involve weekends or vacations, since the animals will experience stress even from the short-term absence of their friend. But the salary that such an employee is paid allows him to put up with a busy work schedule, since it is 32 thousand dollars a year. Food and accommodation are entirely borne by the research institute, so there is no end to those who want to take this position.

Interesting facts about giant pandas

Giant panda considered the most valuable species of the bear family. Due to its specific culinary preferences, it is usually called the bamboo bear. Researchers initially classified these animals as belonging to the raccoon family, and only towards the end of the 20th century it was finally assigned to the bear family. Pandas are considered the jewel of China, rare animals and are carefully protected by the state. In this article we will introduce our readers to interesting facts related to these funny animals.

1. The first time a giant panda was caught was only in 1916 with the participation of local residents, but it quickly died. Only 20 years later, one American woman managed to buy a bear cub and bring it to America.

2. The giant panda is one of the rarest animals in the world. It lives only in the territory of the People's Republic of China. The main habitat is Sichuan province. Zoologists suggest that pandas could also remain wild in Gansu province and certain areas of the Tibetan mountains.

3. The first panda to end up in a foreign zoo was named Su-lin. She lived in several zoos in the United States. Only after enough long period, after a lengthy search, two more individuals were brought to America, and a little later these bears appeared in London.

4. In the Soviet Union, the first bamboo bear appeared in 1957 in the Moscow Zoo. The beast was a male named Pin-Pin. In 1959, the administration of the Moscow Zoo managed to find another individual for breeding. The newly acquired panda was named An-An, and she turned out to be a male.

5. A panda was born for the first time in a zoo in 1963, in Beijing. The cub was given birth to a female named Li-Li. The weight of the cub was 142 grams. The bear cub received the nickname Min-Ming. A year later, Li-Li brought another bear cub, then scientists were able to establish that the gestation period for pandas is about one hundred and forty days.

6. Peak activity of pandas occurs in the evening and at night. Animals are extremely clean and silent. Occasionally, bears make sounds reminiscent of bleating. Bears cannot stand the rain and try to hide from it.

7. Bamboo bears are extremely cautious animals and try to avoid humans. Despite this, Buddhist monks living in the highlands often domesticate young animals. Pandas often come to monasteries for food alone or in groups.

8. Pandas love to roll head over heels down steep hills; they acquired this habit while escaping from predators. Plus, they are surprisingly good runners. The main natural enemies of bears are leopards.

9. B natural conditions, the bamboo bear's main diet consists of young bamboo shoots and fresh leaves. In addition, pandas love to eat insects, fish, and small rodents.

10. The closest relative of the bamboo bear is the spectacled bear, which lives on the western slope of the Andes on the South American continent.

11. The genetic code of a panda and a human is 68% identical, and a dog and a bamboo bear are 80% identical.

12. In the summer season, in search of coolness, pandas climb to highlands located four kilometers above sea level, and in winter they descend to eight hundred meters.

13. Adult bears grow up to one and a half meters long and reach a weight of 150 kilograms.

14. Every day a panda spends about twelve hours eating and absorbs up to 15% of its own weight.

15. The animal’s body absorbs up to 20% of the absorbed food.

16. Big panda, unlike other bears, hibernation is not required.

17. Pandas often give birth to twins, but only feed one cub. The second cub usually dies.

18. After birth, the cub spends about three years with its mother.

19. Total number of pandas, in natural environment habitat is approximately 1600 individuals.

20. Bamboo bear hunting has been prohibited in China since 1962. Violation of the ban is punishable by death.

21. The giant panda is considered the national treasure of the People's Republic of China.

22. The Chinese government leases pandas to foreign reserves for one million US dollars a year. Moreover, all born panda cubs are considered the property of the Celestial Empire.