Big Panda - one of the most famous, but also the rarest animals. Now there are very few pandas left in the wild, but in recent years a lot of efforts have been made to ensure their survival.
"Black glasses" and charming appearance gained Panda not only fame, but also universal love.
Widely known and loved Panda gained her charming and easily recognizable appearance. This stocky Bumpkin physique and appearance similar to a bear. The main color of his shaggy coat of white, but paws, a breast, shoulders and ears are black. The same black stains hide small, almost cat's eyes with vertical slits for pupils.
A very useful feature of the Panda is the similarity of the thumb on the front paws. In fact, it is overgrown with fleshy pads processes. Carpal bones, which Panda deftly grabs food.
The basis of the diet of the big Panda are leaves, stems and young shoots of bamboo. Adult Panda eats 10-20 kg of bamboo a day, but maybe more. Do not disdain pandas and other plant foods.
Being able to stand on squat hind legs, large pandas, however, always move on all four sprawling, clubfoot gait. In the case of chase, they move on to a clumsy trot, but quickly get tired and can not stand this momentum. Excellent climbers, they often climb to the lower branches of trees and search for food, just to relax or hide from danger.
Where do pandas live
In the wild, the great Panda is found only in a few mountainous areas of Central and southern China, covered with cold, humid forests, at altitudes from 1200 to 4000 m.
It is there that their favorite delicacy grows - bamboo. The total area of their habitat is about 30,000 square kilometers, but it is believed that pandas live on an area of no more than 6,000 square kilometers.. In the native forests, each Panda acquires its own territory, which is marked on the border trees with secretions of fragrant jellies). Sometimes these territory can partly coincide, but usually animals avoid each other, leading a solitary image life.
Large pandas can stand on squat hind legs, but get tired quickly and at any opportunity not averse to rest.
Pandas are nocturnal animals that stay awake from dusk to dawn. During the day they sleep and rest, but not in a permanent lair, but in a secluded place somewhere among the rocks or even in a hollow tree.
What pandas eat
Although the great Panda is classified as a carnivore, its diet is based on plant food, especially leaves, shoots and bamboo stalks. Sitting down somewhere in the bamboo thickets, the animal breaks off the young plants with its front paws and methodically eats all the dainties-leaves, shoots and stems.
In the waking hours, i.e. about 16 hours a day, the Panda is almost all the time busy eating. It requires huge amounts of bamboo to maintain body weight - partly because vegetarian food is not very nutritious, and partly because the Panda's digestive system is not as efficient as that of other herbivores. While most herbivores absorb about 80% of food, the Panda - only 17 %.
In addition to bamboo, the big Panda willingly eats other plant food-grass, flowers, mushrooms, tubers, roots and bark, as well as small mammals and fish that can be caught. She does not disdain carrion. In the bearish manner pandas organize raids and bee nests.
The baby Panda is born blind and so tiny that the first weeks of the female almost does not release it from the clutches. A month later, black spots appear on his coat.
Reproduction
The mating season of big pandas lasts from mid-March to may, and at this time the animals are looking for a mate. One female may be claimed by 4-5 males, but once the noisy mating has taken place, the animals return to their former solitary lifestyle. After 3-5 months, the female finds a warm safe den in a cave or hollow. Lining the lair with leaves and 5 branches, she gives birth to a tiny and helpless cub. Often on light emerge two and even three cubs, but they require such care and attention, that called lower usually nurtures one, dooming rest on demise.
Panda cubs
Pandas are born blind, almost naked and weigh no more than 150 g. The first three weeks the female sits almost all the time, not letting the baby out of the front paws and pressing the child to the nipples. The cub is growing fast. By the end of the first month he grows fur with black marks, and after another two weeks open his eyes. He doesn't start walking until he's three months old, and before that his mother wears him all the time.
With five months, the baby goes to bamboo food, and another month after it is weaned. At the age of 1-1. 5 years, the cub leaves the mother and begins an independent life. Giant pandas reach sexual maturity by the age of six, and the female gives birth to a cub every 2-3 years. Because of the slow pace of reproduction, it is very difficult to increase the number of large pandas in the wild.