What are the living habits of giant pandas (Why do giant pandas eat bamboo)

The giant panda is one of the cutest animals in the world. It is endemic to China and is a first-class protected animal in China. Do you know the living habits of the giant panda? Below is the panda's living habits and characteristics brought to you by the editor, for your reference, let's take a look!

Panda's life habits

1. Diet: Giant pandas were originally meat-eaters and have the potential to be carnivores, but they rarely prey on animals or animal carcasses. This is not because they do not like to eat meat, but because they lack opportunities. Because in the distribution area of giant pandas, there are few large carnivores and not many carcasses left for them to eat. If they often catch small animals such as mice, the nutrition they get is often not enough to compensate for the energy they consume. Therefore, giant pandas can only eat a little meat occasionally, and most of the time they rely on bamboo to survive, becoming animals that follow the rules and live on bamboo all their lives.

2. Environment: Giant pandas live in the mountains and valleys of the upper reaches of the Yangtze River in China, on the windward side of the southeast monsoon. The climate is cool and humid, with humidity often above 80%. They are hygrophilic animals. The six narrow strips of land they live in include the Minshan Mountains, Qionglai Mountains, Liangshan Mountains, Daxiang Mountains, Xiaoxiang Mountains and Qinling Mountains, spanning 45 counties (cities) in Sichuan, Shaanxi and Gansu provinces. The habitat area is more than 20,000 square kilometers, and the population is about 1,600, of which more than 80% are distributed in Sichuan.

3. Behavior: Giant pandas spend half of their time eating and the other half of their time sleeping. In the wild, giant pandas sleep for 2 to 4 hours between every two meals. They prefer to sleep lying flat, lying on their sides, lying prone, stretching or curling up.

4. Reproduction: Giant pandas live in dense forests. When they grow to a certain stage, they need to mate and give birth, that is, estrus, courtship, mating, pregnancy and raising young. Female giant pandas go into estrus once a year, each time for only 2 to 3 days. The estrus period is usually from March to May each year. The gestation period is 83 to 200 days, and the cubs are usually born around August.

5. Nurturing: Newborn giant pandas are quite immature at birth, weighing only 0.1% of their mothers’ weight. Newborn cubs are very light, with an average birth weight of about 145 grams, about one thousandth of the weight of an adult giant panda, with the lightest weighing 51 grams and the heaviest weighing 225 grams. Caring for a child is a very difficult task for a female giant panda, which usually lasts 18 months, sometimes even up to two years, until her next child is born.

What are the characteristics of the giant panda?

Personality characteristics

Giant pandas are usually very docile. When they first meet people, they often cover their faces with their front paws or lower their heads to hide their true appearance. They rarely attack other animals or people actively. When they meet people by chance in the wild, they always avoid them. But once they become mothers, their babies are sacred and inviolable. Even caring visits can anger the mothers and make them angry, baring their teeth and claws, and moving their hands and feet. Sometimes they also like to do some grooming and other activities to seek comfort. They can stretch their bodies like cats, stretching their front legs and lifting their back half to make their bodies flexible and stretch, or yawning with their front legs straight after waking up. If they are wet or after wading through a river, they can also shake off the water on their bodies like dogs.

Behavior characteristics

Except for half of the time spent eating, the remaining half of the time is mostly spent sleeping. In the wild, giant pandas sleep for 2 to 4 hours between every two meals. Lying flat, lying on their sides, lying prone, stretching or curling up are all their favorite sleeping styles. In the zoo, the keepers feed them twice a day, so the giant pandas spend the rest of their time resting. Even when sleeping, giant pandas look cute. They are very flexible and can put their bulky bodies into various postures. Their favorite posture is to prop their legs on a tree and cover their eyes with their hands.

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We created this article in conjunction with AI technology, then made sure it was fact-checked and edited by a Animals Top editor.