Giant panda

The black-and-white bear that eats bamboo

The panda is a black-and-white bear that lives in the mountains of China. It eats bamboo for 14 hours a day — up to 40 kg! A panda's paw has a 'sixth finger' for holding bamboo. A baby panda is as tiny as a mouse when it's born, and pink.

The giant panda (Ailuropoda melanoleuca) is a bear of the mountain forests of Sichuan, Shaanxi and Gansu in China. Although it has a carnivore's digestive system, 99% of its diet is bamboo; bamboo is low in nutrition, so a panda must eat 12–38 kg a day. An enlarged wrist bone works as a 'false thumb'. A newborn weighs 100 g — 900 times less than its mother. After China created 67 reserves, the wild population grew from 1,100 to 1,860, and in 2016 the IUCN moved the species from EN to VU — proof that protection works. The panda is the symbol of WWF.

Fun facts

• A panda poops up to 40 times a day — that's how bamboo digests!
• A baby panda is born 900 times smaller than its mother.
• All pandas in the world belong to China — other zoos only 'rent' them.
• Pandas love climbing trees and tumbling down — it's how they play.