PANDAS

What is a panda?

Firstly, there are two types of panda, the giant panda and the red panda: the giant panda is commonly classified as a bear: the red panda is usually linked with the raccoon family. When a panda cub is born it is no bigger than a hamster! The tiny cub is blind and helpless at first, with hardly any hair, but its distinctive black marking already show on its pink skin. A baby panda doesn’t take its first steps until it is five months old, by then it weighs 25 kilograms (55 lb)….and in another six months its weight will have doubled!

Adult pandas spend up to 16 hours a day eating! The bamboo plant on which they feed has little nourishment, so they must eat up to 45 kilograms (100 lb) of shoots and leaves daily.

Only a thousand giant pandas survive in the wild, high up in the mountains and bamboo forests of Southwest China.

The panda’s special paw

Each front paw of the panda has six digits. The extra one is really an enlarged wrist that works as an opposite thumb – perfect for grasping tiny bamboo shoots and stems.