GIANT PANDA

Ailuropoda melanoleuca

Physical Description

The Giant Panda is so endangered that the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) chose to use a picture of the animal as its logo. Although the Panda’s historical habitat range falls mostly in Tibet, the Chinese government calls the Giant Panda one of China’s national treasures, and has used the Panda as the focus of several of its major publicity campaigns.

The Giant Panda is so popular partly because of its attractive, distinctive colouring – the Panda’s legs, shoulders, eyes, ears, and nose are black, while the rest of its body is white. This mottled colouring probably serves to camouflage the Giant Panda within its natural habitat of deep forests. Because the forest canopy appears patchy when looked up at from below (overhead branches and leaves look dark and the sky looks light), it is difficult for the Panda’s predators to spot it when it is sitting in the trees.

The Giant Panda’s smooth coat, dual-layered and oily, additionally protects the Panda from the cool and damp climate of its habitat. The inner layer of the Giant Panda’s fur is dense and wool-like, while the outer layer is coarse. The Panda also has a small furry tail that measures 10 to 15 centimetres (four to six inches) long.

The Giant Panda’s head is large in proportion to the rest of its body. The Panda has large molars and powerful muscles that extend from the top of its head to its jaws that together enable the Panda to crush fibrous plant material like tough stalks. A tough, horny lining protects the Giant Panda’s oesophagus from bamboo splinters. Thick muscular wall linings similarly protect the Panda’s stomach. The Giant Panda has five fingers and a specialized wrist bone called a sesamoid that enables the Panda to more easily grasp and manipulate bamboo.

The hind paws of the Giant Panda lack the heel pads found in the seven other bear species. The Giant Panda is slightly smaller than the Black Bear, with a body length of 160 to 190 centimetres (5.2 to 6.2 feet) and a height of about 70 to 80 centimetres (2.3 to 2.6 feet) at the shoulder. Giant pandas weigh between 80 and 150 kilograms (176 to 331 pounds). Females weigh about 10% less than males.

 

Habitat

The Giant Panda can tolerate a wide variety of climates, ranging in temperature from very hot to very cold, but most pandas inhabit humid, mountainous forests with dense bamboo stands, near streams, at elevations between 2,700 and 3,900 metres (8,900 to 12,800 feet). Though the Giant Panda may descend to as low as 800 metres (2,600 feet) during the winter, it is usually not found below 1,200 to 1,300 metres (3,900 to 4,300 feet) because of the impact man has had on the Panda’s habitat.

The Giant Panda is confined to portions of six mountain ranges in Tibet and China, including the Qinling, Min, Qionglai, Daxiangling, Xiaoxiangling, and Liang Mountains. These mountain ranges are found in the Amdo and Kham regions of Tibet (the Gansu and Sichuan provinces of China) and the Chinese province of Shaanxi. The highest concentration of Giant pandas occurs in eastern Tibet (in Sichuan Province).

Slightly over half of the Giant Panda’s population occurs in 33 nature reserves in Tibet and China. Five of these reserves are in Shaanxi Province, two are in Gansu, and the rest are in Sichuan. The largest of the reserves in which the Panda is found is the 2137.5 square-kilometre (825 square mile) Baishuijiang Reserve in Gansu Province. The largest Giant Panda breeding center is located within the Wolong Nature Reserve in Lungu (Wenchuan) County of the Ngaba (Aba) Prefecture, Sichuan Province.

 

Eating Habits

Though the Giant Panda was once a carnivore, due to environmental changes, the overwhelming bulk of the Panda’s diet (over 99%) now consists of bamboo leaves, stems, and shoots. Since the Giant Panda’s intestinal system is relatively inefficient, the Panda must consume 10 to 18 kilograms (22 to 40 pounds) of bamboo leaves and stems per day to meet its nutritional needs. When consuming fresh bamboo shoots, however, the necessary intake for a Giant panda rises to approximately 38 kilograms (84 pounds) per day. It is no surprise, then, that the Giant Panda spends 11 to 14 hours of its days foraging. The Panda supplements its diet with grasses and flower bulbs, and, occasionally, fruit, fish, eggs, insects, carrion, and small rodents like bamboo rats.

 

Behaviour and Reproduction

The Giant Panda descends to lower elevations in the winter rather than hibernating. The Panda is most active at twilight and at night. The Giant Panda is primarily terrestrial, but it climbs into the trees from time to time, to play and sleep in the sun, or to avoid predators or dominant pandas on the ground. The Panda’s short claws make the animal an efficient climber. The Giant Panda can also swim. Pandas communicate with each other using over 12 different types of vocalizations.

The Giant Panda is a solitary animal, living with others only during the mating season. An individual panda’s home range generally measures from about 3 to 10 square kilometres (1.2 to 3.9 square miles) in size, which is quite small compared to the home ranges of other bear species.

Female pandas tend to remain in discrete home ranges, concentrating most of their activities within a small area of their ranges. Males, on the other hand, tend to have larger home ranges that may overlap the home ranges of several females and adjacent males. The size of a female panda’s home range varies according to the availability of bamboo, while the size of a male panda’s home range appears to be dependent on the number and availability of reproductive females.

Female Giant pandas reach sexual maturity at 4 to 5 years of age. Males reach sexual maturity at 6 to 7 years of age. The Panda’s mating season typically takes place between mid-March and mid-May. The Giant Panda’s gestation period is 129 to 159 days. Female pandas that have been impregnated in the spring give birth between August and October.

The Giant Panda does not construct a permanent den, but females will take shelter in hollow trees, rock crevices, or caves when giving birth and for three to four months after their cubs are born. Each mother gives birth to one, two, or, rarely, to three cubs. Most of the time, if a mother gives birth to more than one cub in a single breeding season, she will raise one cub and abandon the other(s).

Giant Panda cubs only weigh between 100 to 200 grams (4 to 8 ounces) at birth. Cubs are born blind, helpless, and covered in sparse white hair. Panda mothers take exceptional care of their cubs, sometimes even fasting for several days after having given birth so that they can stay in their dens with their cubs. Cubs become mobile at five to six months of age and are usually weaned approximately ten months after birth.

Young pandas become independent of their mothers at about one to two years (average 18 months) of age. Mature females generally only give birth every two years, each to a total of five to eight cubs within a lifetime.

The life span of the Giant Panda, for pandas in the wild, is about 20 years. The Panda is a very shy animal, avoiding humans when possible. The Giant Panda’s natural predators include jackals and leopards. Yellow-throated martens prey on panda cubs. The Panda is strong enough to defend itself against most attacks.

 

Present Status

The Giant Panda is categorized as Endangered in the 2003 IUCN Red List of Threatened Species and is listed under Appendix I of CITES. The Giant Panda is under first class protection in China. In 2004, the Giant Panda population size was estimated at around 1,600. The Panda’s population is thought to have remained stable for the last 20 years. There are approximately 25 sub-populations of the Giant Panda remaining, most with fewer than 20 members.

 

Threats to Survival

The major threat to the Giant Panda’s survival is habitat loss and fragmentation. Though the size of the Giant Panda’s total range is estimated at 29,500 square kilometres (11,400 square miles), probably less than 20%, or 5,900 square kilometres (2,300 square miles), of that represents panda habitat. The Panda’s habitat has been lost and degraded as a result of trees being cut down for timber and fuel wood, the conversion of forest to cropland and plantations, and the expansion of human settlements. Logging was banned throughout most of the Giant Panda’s habitat range at the end of 1998, but may continue illegally.

The destruction of the Giant Panda’s habitat has resulted in the fragmentation of the Panda’s population. Giant pandas are dependent on bamboo. Mature bamboo plants eventually flower, produce seeds, and die. The seeds will grow into new bamboo plants, but it can take up to ten years before these plants are large enough for the Giant Panda to eat. All the plants of one species of bamboo growing in an area flower and die at the same time.

Though Giant pandas can eat over 40 different species of bamboo, most pandas depend upon only the 2 to 10 species that are predominant within their home ranges. Bamboo flowers every 30 to 120 years according on the species. Giant pandas living in an area of bamboo that is in the process of dying must migrate to a new bamboo grove or face starvation. Unfortunately, the corridors between isolated groves are increasingly intensively tended agricultural areas or large urban areas. These areas are seldom hospitable to the Giant Panda. Between

1975 and 1976, the whole of the dense bamboo forest in the Namphel and Drukchu regions dried up after flowering, resulting in the death of more than 138 Giant pandas that lacked safe migration paths to new bamboo groves.

An additional threat to the Giant Panda’s survival is poaching. The Panda was heavily poached in the past because of the relatively high price its pelt fetches on the international market. The pelt of a Giant panda may earn the initial seller US$3,000, which is equivalent to two to three times the average annual income of a rural Chinese peasant, and may be resold for as much as US$40,000 in Taiwan. Poaching of the Panda has become less severe over the last few years, because of increased educational efforts and better enforcement of China’s wildlife protection laws.

However, the Giant Panda is still caught in traps poachers have set to catch other animals, such as musk deer and other bears.

The Giant Panda’s low reproductive rate intensifies the severity of the threats habitat loss and fragmentation and poaching pose to the species’ survival. The Giant Panda has a short breeding season, mature females only raise one cub every two years, and births generally take place late in the year. Giant Panda cubs born during the winter are often too weak to survive the cold.

 

References

BBC, Science & Nature – Wildfacts – Giant Panda, http://www.bbc.co.uk/nature/wildfacts/factfiles/5.shtml, Aug 2004.

Bear Specialist Group, 1996: Ailuropoda melanoleuca. In: IUCN 2003, 2003 IUCN Red List of Threatened Species, http://www.redlist.org. See

also: http://www.bearbiology.com/gpdesc.html, Aug 2004.

Catton, C., 1990: Pandas, Christopher Helm, London, 152pp.

Kemf, Elizabeth, Wilson, Alison, and Christopher Servheen, 1999: Bears in the Wild, WWF, Gland, Switzerland, 11pp.

Laidler, Liz and Keith, 1996: China’s Threatened Wildlife, London.

Massicot, Paul, Sept 2004: Animal Info – Giant Panda, http://www.animalinfo.org/species/carnivor/ailumela.htm, Sept 2004.

San Diego Zoo, Animal Bytes – Giant Panda, http://www.sandiegozoo.org/animalbytes/t-giant_panda.html, Sept 2004.

WWF China, Panda Central, http://www.wwfchina.org/english/pandacentral/index.htm, Sept 2004.

By: Environment and Development Desk, DIIR, CTA.