History of Panda

Giant panda: a mammal belonging to the genus Ailuropoda, family Bearidae. There are only two subspecies. The males are slightly larger than the females. The body is plump and bear-like, with a rounded head and short tail, 1.2-1.8 m long at the head and 10-12 cm long at the tail. Weighing 80-120kg and up to 180kg, they are black and white in color, with rounded cheeks, large 'black eyes', a trademark inside-out walk and scalpel-sharp claws. The giant panda's skin is thick, up to 10mm at its thickest point. Its black and white appearance makes it easy to hide in the trees and snowy ground of dense forests without being detected by predators.

It lives in dense bamboo forests at an altitude of 2600-3500m, where the air is thin and cloudy all year round and the temperature is below 20°C. There is an abundance of bamboo, and the terrain and distribution of water is conducive to the species building nests to hide and nurse their young. Giant pandas are good tree climbers and also love to play. The act of climbing trees is usually a way of avoiding the stronger one when approaching courtship, or to escape danger, or when the weaker one meets the other. The giant panda spends most of its time in sleep, after eating half of the day. In the wild, pandas sleep for two to four hours between meals. Ninety-nine per cent of a giant panda's diet consists of bamboo, and there are more than 60 species of bamboo plants in 12 genera that can be consumed by pandas. The life expectancy of a giant panda in the wild is 18-20 years, and in captivity it can exceed 30 years.

The giant panda has been on Earth for at least eight million years and is known as a "living fossil" and "China's national treasure", or national animal, and is a WWF ambassador and flagship species for biodiversity conservation worldwide. As of January 2021, the wild population of giant pandas in China has increased to 1,864 individuals.

2021, listed in Class I of China's National Key Wildlife List

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