Grandine Hannah B. Grandine Hannah B. DalisayDalisay

Ailuropoda Ailuropoda melanoleucmelanoleuc

aa

Project in Science

Passed By:

My Favorite Vertebrate

To be passed to: Zairish Rose AndradaZairish Rose Andrada

Giant Panda / Ailuropoda melanoleuca

Class MammaliaOrder CarnivoraFamily UrsidaeGenus Ailuropoda

Species melanoleuca

Conservation Concerns Endangered due to habitat destruction.

Range Central and western China.Habitat Bamboo forests at elevations ranging from 2,300 to 3,800 m (7,500 to 12,500 ft).Size Height: 1.2 to 1.5m (3.9 to 4.9 ft).

Weight: 75 to 1,600 kg (165 to 220 lb).

Feeding Habits Giant pandas are herbivores; they mainly eat bamboo. They spend about 12 to 14 hours eating each day.

Offspring Giant pandas mate between March and May. Females give birth to one or two cubs after a three- to six-month gestation period.

Life Span About 20 to 30 years.Did You Know Giant pandas eat about 18 kg (40 lb) of bamboo a day.

Giant pandas are a species of bear.

Only about 1,000 giant pandas remain in the wild.

Giant panda paws have a long wrist bone that works like a thumb to grasp bamboo stems.

Habitat

Giant pandas occupy temperate montane forests with dense stands of bamboo at altitudes of 1,200–4,100 m asl (more typically 1,500–3,000 m asl; Hu and Wei 2004). Habitat use depends both on the type and density of bamboo, the overstory (which influences the growth of bamboo), and the hillslope (Reid and Hu 1991). Giant pandas do not hibernate but they generally descend to lower elevations in the winter (Liu et al. 2002), and may take temporary shelter in hollow

trees, rock crevices and caves.

Giant pandas spend about 55% of the day (both daytime and night-time) feeding, mainly on bamboo (Schaller et al. 1985, 1989). Bamboo comprises 99% of their diet. They utilize over 60 species of bamboo, but 35 species comprise their main food source (Hu and Wei 2004). They often use different species of

bamboo in different elevational bands, varying use with the seasons (Pan et al. 2001, Loucks et al. 2003)

Pandas are often erroneously believed to be poor breeders, an impression rooted in the previous disappointing reproductive performance of captive animals (Lü et al. 2000). Studies of wild pandas, however, indicate that their reproductive rates are comparable to those of some other species of bears (Garshelis 2004,

Harris 2004, Wang et al. 2004). Moreover, captive populations in China are now reproducing well.

Giant pandas are usually solitary, except during the mating season and while rearing a cub. During the March–May breeding season, females may breed with multiple males. Birthing, often in rock dens or hollow trees, occurs in August–September (Schaller et al. 1985, Zhu et al. 2001). One or two cubs are born, but

the mother raises only one.

Means of ReproductionInitially, the primary method of breeding giant pandas in captivity was by artificial insemination, as they seemed to lose their interest in mating once they were captured.This led some scientists to try extreme methods, such as showing them videos of giant pandas mating and giving the males Viagra.Only recently have researchers started having success with captive breeding programs, and they have now determined giant pandas have comparable breeding to some populations of the American black bear, a thriving bear family. The current reproductive rate is considered one young every two years.Giant pandas reach sexual maturity between the ages of four and eight, and may be reproductive until age 20. The mating season is between March and May, when a female goes into estrus, which lasts for two or three days and only occurs once a year.When mating, the female is in a crouching, head-down position as the male mounts her from behind. Copulation time is short, ranging from 30 seconds to five minutes, but the male may mount her repeatedly to ensure successful fertilization. The gestation period ranges from 95 to 160 days.

If twins are born, usually only one survives in the wild. The mother will select the stronger of the cubs, and the weaker will die. The mother is thought to be unable to produce enough milk for two cubs, since she does not store fat. The father has no part in helping raise the cub.

When the cub is first born, it is pink, blind, and toothless, weighing only 90 to 130 grams (3.2 to 4.6 ounces), or about 1/800th of the mother's weight. It nurses from its mother's breast six to 14 times a day for up to 30 minutes at a time. For three to four hours, the mother may leave the den to feed, which leaves the cub defenseless. One to two weeks after birth, the cub's skin turns gray where its hair will eventually become black. A slight pink color may appear on cub's fur, as a result of a chemical reaction between the fur and its mother's saliva. A month after birth, the color pattern of the cub's fur is fully developed. Its fur is very soft and coarsens with age. The cub begins to crawl at 75 to 80 days;mothers play with their cubs by rolling and wrestling with them. The cubs can eat small quantities of bamboo after six months, though mother's milk remains the primary food source for most of the first year. Giant panda cubs weigh 45 kg (100 pounds) at one year, and live with their mothers until they are 18 months to two years old. The interval between births in the wild is generally two years.

In July 2009, Chinese scientists confirmed the birth of the first cub to be successfully conceived through artificial insemination using frozen sperm.The cub was born at 07:41 on 23 July that year in Sichuan as the third cub of You You, an 11-year-old. The technique for freezing the sperm in liquid nitrogen was first developed in 1980 and the first birth was hailed as a solution to the problem of lessening giant panda semen availability, which had led to inbreeding.Panda semen, which can be frozen for decades, could be shared between different zoos to save the species. It is expected that zoos in destinations such as San Diego in the United States and Mexico City will now be able to provide their own semen to inseminate more giant pandas.Attempts have also been made to reproduce giant pandas by interspecific pregnancy by implanting cloned panda embryos into the uterus of an animal of another species. This has resulted in panda fetuses, but no live births.

NutritionDespite its taxonomic classification as a carnivoran, the giant panda's diet is

primarily herbivorous, consisting almost exclusively of bamboo.However, the giant panda still has the digestive system of a carnivore, as well as carnivore-specific genes,and thus derives

little energy and little protein from consumption of bamboo. Its ability to digest cellulose is ascribed to the microbes in its gut.The giant panda is a "highly specialized" animal with

"unique adaptations", and has lived in bamboo forests for millions of years.The average giant panda eats as much as 9 to 14 kg (20 to 30 lb) of bamboo shoots a day. Given this large

diet, the giant panda can defecate up to 40 times a day.Because it consumes a diet low in nutrition, it is important for it to keep its digestive tract full.The limited energy input imposed on it by its diet has affected the panda's behavior. The giant panda tends to limit its social

interactions and avoids steeply sloping terrain to limit its energy expenditures.

Two of the panda's most distinctive features, its large size and round face, are adaptations to its bamboo diet. Panda researcher Russell Ciochon observed: “[much] like the vegetarian

gorilla, the low body surface area to body volume [of the giant panda] is indicative of a lower metabolic rate. This lower metabolic rate and a more sedentary lifestyle allows the giant

panda to subsist on nutrient[-]poor resources such as bamboo.”Similarly, the giant panda's round face is the result of powerful jaw muscles, which attach from the top of the head to the

jaw.Large molars crush and grind fibrous plant material.

Pandas eat any of 25 bamboo species in the wild, such as Fargesia dracocephala and Fargesia rufa.Only a few bamboo species are widespread at the high altitudes pandas now

inhabit. Bamboo leaves contain the highest protein levels; stems have less.Because of the synchronous flowering, death, and regeneration of all bamboo within a

species, the giant panda must have at least two different species available in its range to avoid starvation. While primarily herbivorous, the giant panda still retains decidedly ursine teeth, and will eat meat, fish, and eggs when available. In captivity, zoos typically maintain the giant panda's bamboo diet, though some will provide specially formulated biscuits or

other dietary supplements.

Survival

A member of the bear family, the giant panda is a robust animal with heavy shoulders and a distinctive black and white coat.

Most of the body and belly of the giant panda are white, contrasting sharply with the black ears, black limbs and shoulders, and black patches over the eyes.The male giant

panda is slightly larger and heavier than the female.The giant panda has a relatively large head and large, muscular jaws, while its molars and premolar teeth are wider and flatter than those of other bears, allowing it to grind bamboo. This species is also unusual in having a ‘thumb’, which is actually a modified

wrist bone that enables the giant panda to dextrously grasp bamboo stalks.