Into the habitat big panda includes the mountainous regions of the Tibet-Qinghai Plateau, western central China and southwestern China. The giant panda lives mainly in the Sichuan province. There are also small populations of this animal in Shaanxi and Gansu provinces. Before the start of active land development for needs Agriculture and deforestation, the giant panda inhabited many of the low-lying areas of China's interior.

Big pandas live in mountainous areas covered with bamboo forests, where it often rains. The height of these places ranges from 1200 to 3100 meters above sea level. For one adult pair of pandas, about 3 thousand hectares of bamboo forest are needed for a normal existence.

The habitat of the giant panda has been significantly reduced due to the expansion of land converted to agricultural land and deforestation. Deforestation stopped after a law was passed by the Chinese government in 1998. There are currently 50 wildlife sanctuaries in China to protect the remaining population of the giant panda, total area which is more than 1 million hectares. The deterioration of the panda's habitat is also affected by the division of the areas of its habitat due to economic activity person. Pandas lack food if the bamboo on its separate territory did not grow well enough in a certain year.

Protecting the giant panda's habitat indirectly helps to protect entire ecosystems from destruction. In particular, measures to protect the panda's habitat are improving water quality in the source area of ​​China's largest and most important river, the Yangtze. Eco-tourism in these protected areas provides additional income for people living in these poor mountainous areas. Tourists, in turn, have the opportunity to see wild pandas in their natural environment a habitat. This highly controlled type of tourism has a minimal impact on the environment.

There are many opportunities to shop for something original in Chengdu: Chinese or Tibetan style souvenirs, brocade or embroidery, antiques or artwork. The giant panda is increasingly being used as a symbol for China. This very cute and cute animal is not found in the wild anywhere else in the world. The most the best place in the world to observe the giant panda - the Giant Panda Breeding and Research Center in Chengdu City.

In your opinion, which animal is the most harmless and cute? As for me, so is a panda. You look at them and you want to immediately hug and caress. They are like little children, you want to play with them and have fun. When I saw this animal for the first time, I fell in love with it forever.

Giant panda

Although pandas belong to the bear family, appearance and the behavior of this animal seems to deny it. The panda has an interesting black and white color scheme. The body is covered with thick white fur, black circles around the eyes, ears and paws are also painted black. The panda has many differences from other bears, one of them is a long tail, about 15 cm. The main product in the panda's diet is bamboo. An adult can consume about 30 kg of it per day. But like all bears, the panda is a predatory animal, and the diet also contains foods such as:

  • eggs;
  • small animals and birds;
  • insects.

Pandas use this kind of food in case of a lack of protein in the body.

Panda habitat

The homeland and the only place on the planet where animals are free is located in the mountainous regions of China, in Tibet and Sichuan. Also, the panda can be found in zoos in Europe, USA, Japan and China. In zoos, these animals are a highlight, people give a lot of money to pet them and take pictures with them. And zoo workers compete for the right to be their observers. Interestingly, the giant panda is the only panda species that belongs to the bear family, not the panda family!

These animals also know how to slide down slides, curled up in a ball. Many people think that these are games, but they are not! V wildlife animals similarly defend themselves from predators by escaping from them. While we consider the panda to be a friendly animal, it is worth remembering that it is primarily a predator. Zhang's Beijing Zoo has recorded at least three cases of these animals being attacked, of course, through human fault! But the fact remains.

I, like many women, sometimes look like a panda when I remove makeup from my eyes. Here's what a panda would look like if you could remove the black circles around its eyes.

Funny, and still cute!

The giant panda is an unusual, rare and very cute animal. It would not be an exaggeration to say that no animal conquered the hearts of people like these cute, awkward and cozy animals. Pandas are the favorites of children, zoo employees, photojournalists, toy manufacturers ... And, perhaps, no other animal has attracted the attention of scientists and posed so many mysteries to naturalists.

The giant panda is also called the giant panda, bamboo bear, Tibetan mountain bear, spotted bear.

The appearance of the giant panda to the world

The world learned about the existence of giant pandas in the wild mountains in western China in 1869. It was then that the French missionary and naturalist Father Jean Pierre Armand David presented the skin and skeleton of a mysterious animal to compatriot scientists. The beast belonged to a completely new species, which Father David named Ursus melanoleucus, that is, "black and white bear." However, French scientists drew attention to the similarity of the skeleton and skin of an unprecedented beast with the skeleton and skin of another, rather small animal that lives in the same places - with a small panda, which outwardly resembles a cross between a fox and a raccoon, although a raccoon-like body, stripes on the face and a long, ringed tail shows who her ancestors were closely related to.

And decades after this discovery, a new animal, which was named the giant panda (Ailuropoda melanoleuca), remained mysterious and practically unexplored, and due to the inaccessibility of habitats and an extremely tempting trophy not only for naturalists, but also for hunters. Only in 1928 did the expedition of Theodore Roosevelt Jr. manage to track down and shoot a panda.

After these events, a real hunt for a mysterious beast began - museums, in pursuit of fame and wealth, equipped expeditions to acquire a stuffed new animal. In 1936, New York fashion designer Ruth Harkness returned to her homeland with an especially enviable trophy - a live panda cub! The kid was named Su-Lin. Following Ruth's example, other hunters also began bringing in spotted bears for the largest zoos, and the western world was literally obsessed with pandas.

After the Second World War, Mei-Mei, Ming, Grumpy, Sonya, Grandma, Pan-Di, Pan-Da, Ping-Ping, Chi-Chi, An-An, Li-Li were held captive by zoos. And in 1972, Lin-Ling and Qing-Qing arrived at the Washington Zoo - a gift from the Chinese government to the United States. In the zoos there was no end to visitors - everyone wanted to admire the funny antics of the overseas miracle bears, while experts, meanwhile, collected information to compose a picture of the natural habitat of the giant panda.

And yet it's a bear

Today there are six in the world: brown, white, spectacled, Malay, sloth and giant panda.

For a long time, scientists have been arguing about which family the giant panda belongs to - bears or raccoons, and only relatively recently it was recognized as a bear.

Accumulating evidence, including a comparison of blood proteins, indicates that the giant panda, although it branched off the evolutionary tree on its own, is nevertheless much closer to the bear family than to the raccoons.

Like bears, giant pandas are massive and sluggish land animals averaging 160 cm long, weighing up to 140 kilograms, and yet, again like many bears, they are good at climbing trees. They are helped in this by short paws with sharp and long claws. In the trees, bamboo bears hide from danger or sleep. Especially in the art of climbing trees, young individuals thrive.

The tail of a bamboo bear reaches 10-12 cm. The entire body of the animal is covered with thick fur. The peculiar black and white coloration is still unexplained. Some scientists believe that under certain conditions, when chiaroscuro plays on winter snow, white and black spots provide good camouflage. However, the panda has no dangerous enemies in its mountain shelter. Other scientists are of the opinion that this color makes animals more noticeable to the opposite sex (and the eyesight of pandas is unimportant), which has great importance during the mating season.

All scientists agree that the giant panda is a special animal. V natural conditions it is found in a small area in the mountain forests of the Chinese province of Sichuan. There are also small local populations of these rare bears in Gansu and Shaanxi provinces.

Conservation status

Panda is loved and appreciated not only for its cute appearance, gorgeous black and white outfit, peaceful demeanor and mysterious story life, but also for its rarity.

China's growing population constantly needed new land for agriculture and timber, resulting in deforestation. So, from 1974 to 1989, the habitat of the bamboo bear in Sichuan province decreased by almost 50%. Giant pandas, displaced from the subtropical lowlands, survived only in the high-mountainous mixed broad-leaved and coniferous forests with bamboo and herbs undergrowth.

Since 1990, giant pandas have had a threatened status. Fortunately, today their population is growing, and in the Red Book since 2016 they have been listed as animals in a “vulnerable position”. So, if in 2004 there were 1,596 bamboo bears, then by 2014 there were already 1,864 (and this is 2 times more than at the end of the 1970s). Today, the panda is protected by the Wildlife Protection Act, according to which the extermination of this beast is punishable by life imprisonment or even the death penalty. In 1992, a system of reserves was created in China, of which there are now 67 pieces, and 67% of all pandas in the world live here.

Panda - not only wild animal, but also a symbol. The image of this animal is on the emblems of many firms and companies. This beast is the pride of the Chinese People's Republic, national symbol country. The souvenir industry replicates countless pandas, and artists depict them on canvas and silk. The bamboo bear is the animal that inspired Peter Scott (he came up with the idea for the Red Book) to create the famous emblem of the World Wildlife Fund.

The inaccessibility and remoteness of the Himalayan giant panda shelter, as well as the measures taken by the state to protect them, protect the animals from the bullets of hunters. A bamboo curtain hides them from the eyes of curious zoologists in these inhospitable mountains. This is why no one has yet succeeded in conducting any systematic observation of bamboo bears in their natural habitat. Basically, information about their habits and behavior is based on observations in zoos. Since there are very few pandas in captivity, the bamboo bear remains one of the most mysterious animals on our planet, as studying it in zoos has not helped much to reveal the mystery.

Giant panda lifestyle

The habitats of pandas are rugged bamboo groves in the mountains at an altitude of 1200-3900 meters. The bear does not build a permanent lair, sometimes it finds refuge in mountain caves or hollow tree trunks. A secluded place provides him with security and peace.

Panda's relatives are not very favored, each animal has its own territory and, as it can, protects it. The individual plot of the male can reach an area of ​​about 30 sq. Km, for the female - 5-10 sq. Km. The area of ​​the male usually overlaps the areas of several females.



This species is characterized by a solitary lifestyle, with the exception of the mating period. Pandas are active mainly at dusk and at night, and during the day they prefer to sleep in trees, curled up in a ball.

During waking hours, the main occupation of pandas is feeding, and their main and practically only food is bamboo shoots. Bamboo makes up no less than 99% of the diet. An adult animal consumes up to 4.5 tons of bamboo per year! Not only juicy and young shoots are used, but also old lignified stems - their beast grinds with powerful jaws with powerful molars. A unique "sixth claw" - an elongated wrist bone with a fleshy pad helps the bear to hold the appetizing stems in its paw. This bone has developed into a kind of opposing thumb.

Look at the photo of a panda chewing bamboo - the animal sprawled freely, sitting on its hind legs and methodically thrusting the stems into its mouth, grabbing them with its hind teeth.

Every 30-100 years different types bamboo bloom and die. Pandas experience this, switching to different types of bamboo each time, but today the disappearance of habitable places has greatly reduced the choice of food items.

Bamboo is a monotonous and poorly nutritious food, it is absorbed by the body with difficulty, and therefore animals have to chew almost all the time they are awake - 10-12 hours each - slowly moving through the bamboo thickets.

In winter, pandas do not hibernate, although they become even slower.

Bamboo bears can make a wide variety of sounds, similar to bleating, barking, beeping. They also squeak, grumble, moan and even chirp.


Pandas at the zoo. The animals have started a fuss, although usually they almost do not pay attention to each other in full accordance with the solitary way of life inherent in this species.

The fact that giant pandas are one of the most rare species animals, to some extent can be explained by their very low level fertility. The females start flowing only once a year (approximately at the end of March) and lasts no more than three to four days. 4-5 males can compete for one female.

As soon as mating has taken place, the animals return to their former measured and secluded lifestyle. Pregnancy lasts 100-150 days. For pandas, blastocyst implantation is delayed by 1-3 months. Females give birth every 2-3 years, starting at age 4

Before giving birth, the female takes refuge in a hollow of a tree or in a cave, gives birth to cubs and stays in the same place for about a month. For newborns, bamboo bears are completely helpless, they are one of the smallest (relative to the size of their mother) cubs in the animal world. They weigh no more than 150 grams, and grow extremely slowly, reaching the size of an adult only 4 years after birth!

The first fluff in newborns is completely white, and black spots appear on a white background only at the age of one month.

This is how giant panda cubs are born.

If a panda has two (this happens in 60% of cases) or three (which happens very rarely) cubs, then she will take care of only one of the newborns, dooming the rest to starvation. The calf feeds on mother's milk for about 47 weeks, and then begins to switch to adult food, but can live with the mother for up to one and a half years. Becoming independent, some of the juveniles settle in an area that overlaps with the mother, while others leave for long distances.

Bamboo bears reach sexual maturity late, at the age of 4 to 8 years.

Zoo workers feed the cub

In captivity, pandas feel quite comfortable, but do not show a desire to continue their race, especially for males. Attempts to obtain offspring from Chi-Chi kept at the London Zoo and An-An from the Moscow Zoo, widely reported in the press, have not yielded results. The experiments at the Beijing Zoo turned out to be more successful: at least two cubs were born there in captivity.

Since 1990, when breeding pandas in captivity, thanks to artificial insemination, great success... However, the captive population of bamboo bears is still not self-sufficient.

Pandas live an average of 26 years - this is in captivity (in zoos). In nature, their age is shorter - about 20 years.

In contact with

The World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) is the world's largest non-governmental international organization, thanks to which the panda has become a symbol of the conservation movement of the entire planet. The foundation's emblem was created by renowned biologist and artist Sir Peter Scott in 1961.

Origin: either raccoon or bear

"Bei-shung" (in Chinese - "polar bear") was first discovered in 1869, and caught in 1937 (the panda died in captivity a year later).

Scientists still do not know the exact origin of the panda, since it has the characteristics of a bear, raccoon, cat and marten at the same time, definitely not belonging to any of the listed animals. Some scientists believe that the panda belongs to the family of bears, as outwardly it is similar to these animals. This point of view prevailed for some time, so the panda was called the "bamboo bear".

Other scientists argue that the panda is a giant raccoon. In 1936, the American scientist William Gregory, after a thorough study of animals, found many anatomical features in the panda that are characteristic of American striped raccoons. After this event, the panda got another name - "Himalayan raccoon".

Still others are convinced that the panda is a "transitional link" between the families of bears and raccoons. They seem to be right. Although the point of view that "bei-shung" is the most ancient representative of the bear family and may be the ancestor of modern clubfoots is also accepted.

Habitat

The habitat of the giant panda is limited to the Chinese provinces of Sichuan, Shaanxi, Yunan, northeastern Tibet. Individual encounters and finds confirm the presence of the animal in the wild. The habitat of the giant panda is dense, rugged bamboo thickets of steep mountain slopes at an altitude of 2000-3800 meters above sea level (the rhododendron zone begins above, where the panda rarely visits). Also, it rarely descends into the valleys, where a meeting with a person is most likely.

Appearance

The body of the giant panda is elongated; the animal looks squat due to short legs. The body shapes are rounded. The height at the shoulders of an adult animal reaches 70 centimeters, a solid weight - 75-160 kilograms. The muzzle is short, the ears are black, there are black circles around the eyes, as if the beast is wearing glasses. On the paws - black "stockings", and on the chest - the same color "vest"; the rest of the body is white. Thus, the panda is very attractive in appearance: it is like a big teddy bear, "sewn" from white and black patches, and white a lot more.

Power features

The giant panda is a species of herbivorous bears. Local name beast - "nyala-poncha" - means "bamboo eater". Panda is vegetarian. It feeds on bamboo roots and young shoots, tree leaves, and occasionally small rodents.

Features of movement

Panda has a wonderful feature not only to run fast on the ground, but also to roll head over heels on steep slopes. In this case, the animal presses the front paws to the eyes, protecting them, and the hind paws are pressed to the stomach. The soles of the paws are densely covered with long dark hair. The claws on the paws are more than 3 centimeters long, the fingers are mobile, partially retracted. Having formed a "living wheel", the panda is able to develop high speed, which is very important in case of danger from the main enemies " polar bear"- red wolves and leopards. Now, fortunately, they are quite rare in the usual habitats of pandas. There is another enemy - a man who is technically more armed than a panda.

Behavior and character

The panda is not a social animal. This is a loner. The exception is female mothers who do not let their babies go from themselves until they are one year old. The animals are very sensitive and careful: at the slightest danger they quickly hide in the thickets. Therefore, catching a panda is always fraught with great difficulties.

Young pandas in captivity are very playful. They are good-natured, move a lot, take the most unusual postures. They're just acrobats! Pandas can stand on their heads, helping themselves with their front paws, while the hind legs are extended or bent. The panda's tail is white, short, spatulate, no more than 20 centimeters long. Pandas are great tumbling, it gives them special pleasure. This kind of play is of great importance in the wild; the mechanism of rescue from predators has been worked out in the process of evolution and is recognized by Nature as optimal in mountain conditions.

The solidity of adult pandas is expressed, in particular, in postures. Animals sit for a long time, as if in a chair, leaning one of their paws on a rock ledge, a tree trunk or a large stone, or leaning their backs against some object. In such a comfortable position, the pandas either doze for hours or do something with one of their front paws: they clean the twigs from leaves, itch, sort out straws. And all these actions take place slowly, with concentration and measured. One of the panda's wrist bones has lengthened and acts like thumb on a man's hand, opposing all others. Therefore, the panda can firmly hold the thinnest bamboo stems in its paws: its "sixth finger" tightly presses the stems to all the other fingers on its paw.

In the wild, pandas are active in the evening, night and early morning hours. Growing up, at 3-4 years old, pandas become slower, acquiring a bearish posture and drowsiness. They are no longer as gullible as young animals. You should communicate with them carefully, they can bite.

The giant panda moves well on steep mountain slopes, quickly and easily climbs onto tall trees... Sitting comfortably on large knots or in a fork in a tree trunk, the animals rest during the day during the hot summer. In winter, pandas dig holes at the foot of large trees, where they hide in bad weather; v hibernation like bears, they don't fall. In the heat, pandas try to hide in a shelter, in the shade; in addition, they willingly swim in the shallow waters of rivers. The pandas arrange their den for rest on the shady side of the mountain slopes. These landing sites often serve them for a long time.

Mating games for pandas begin in the spring. The baby is born in early September. Usually a panda has one or two cubs. In captivity, pandas live up to 13 years old.

Xinhua News Agency reported in 1995 that in nature reserve in the southwest of China, in the Sichuan province, a colony of three dozen special pandas was found, which "retained the characteristics of prehistoric predatory animals." Chinese zoologists were dubious about the previously received information from local residents that pandas in this province are far from harmless. It turned out that they devour sheep, goats and even cows. One predatory panda was caught and transferred to another reserve, where scientists could keep constant watch over it.

Panda Rescue 1: Conserving Bamboo Forests

The overly narrow food specialization of the panda, like the Australian koala bear, does not contribute to the prosperity of the species. When the bamboo blooms and then dies in large areas (this is the botanical property of this plant), the pandas are in trouble: hunger begins. No substitutes for bamboo have been found yet. In the 1970s in China, after mass death bamboo, the number of pandas in nature has sharply decreased. It is estimated that by the end of the 1980s, no more than 1,000 of them remained. There were no more than 20 pandas left in the zoos of the world ...

The giant panda, as a rare, endangered animal, was listed in the Red Book International Union nature protection. In order to preserve biological diversity on the planet in the world there were two banks of frozen cells of endangered animal species: in the Texas medical center and at the San Diego Zoo (as of 1985). The main focus should be on the protection of bamboo forests as the main habitat of the panda. It is necessary to selectively improve the structure of plants so that the death of bamboo does not occur throughout the entire forest area at the same time.

Panda Rescue 2: Anti Poaching

The Chinese government declared the panda a national treasure and imposed the death penalty for poaching it in the wild. However, even such strict measures cannot resist the desire of local residents to make profitable money on the capture of a panda.

Conservation experts say that unless strict controls on poaching and habitat destruction are introduced in the near future, giant pandas will have little chance of survival in the wild. In 1995, there were only 700 to 1000 individuals.

George Schaller, Academic Supervisor The International Organization Conservation Society of the New York branch of the Zoological Society, noted with bitterness: "Over the past 15-20 years, at least 40 percent of panda habitats have been destroyed, but poaching remains the most serious problem." Panda skins are so highly prized in Taiwan and Japan that people are not afraid of the death penalty for killing this animal: selling two or three panda skins allows you to live comfortably for several years!

Panda Rescue-3: People, be more attentive to us!

In 1995, International Wildlife magazine reported on a number of factors that completely stymied captive panda breeding: bureaucracy and mismanagement of wildlife sanctuaries in China, lack of interaction and understanding among panda scientists.

Zoos for many rare animals remain the only chance to survive. However, the best content, the most tasty morsel of food will still be a pitiful handout for animals. The very "life in a cage" provokes an angry protest from progressive humane societies in the protection of wildlife.

In 2002, the oldest panda in China (Chandong Province Zoo) died. She was 36 years old, in terms of human age - 75-80 years. The favorite of visitors, a female named Changzang weighed 114 kilograms, was very fond of cinnamon rolls and milk. The daily diet consisted of 15 kilograms of bamboo leaves. The animal has problems with the lungs and esophagus. Provincial authorities after touching goodbye with the deceased panda, hundreds of Chinese decided to perpetuate her memory: a stuffed animal was made, which was sent to the homeland of the animal - the province of Hansa.

In 2006, which became the Year of the Panda in China, 30 pandas were born. A pleasant event for local scientists!

Against the backdrop of some people's fascination with artificial teddy bears, we are frankly sorry for the real “bears” - the koala from Australia and the panda from China. There are currently about 1,000 pandas in China. A limited number of pandas are found in zoos around the world, but it has not yet been possible to get offspring in captivity. This is another mystery of the amazing bamboo bear, which was still unsolved by people even by the beginning of the new millennium.

Elena Konkova, Moscow

Despite the fact that both the big and small pandas are representatives of different families, they, in addition to the name, are brought together by the fact that almost everything that pandas eat is bamboo. Considering that both of these animals represent a predatory order, what the panda eats in nature is so unusual that it deserves careful consideration.

What panda eats: the main diet.

The diet is based on different parts of bamboo, from the most delicate shoots to the roots. Despite the fact that these animals have been devouring bamboo for more than a million years, they digestive system not well adapted to its digestion, which is much better at assimilating animal food, which these funny bears prefer to completely or partially ignore.

Cases of meat-eating among giant pandas are rare and, as a rule, are reduced to eating carrion and small mammals... As a supplement, the giant panda eats small birds and eggs from ruined nests, which allows it to get at least a small amount of protein. However, such an addition cannot compensate for bamboo, and if bamboo dies in the habitat of this animal, the panda can die of hunger, as already happened in 1975 and 1983.

The diet of small pandas is almost identical to that of its giant namesake, with the only difference that mushrooms are also among the additional food sources. In addition, it can be noted that he is more finicky and prefers the freshest and juiciest parts of bamboo. There is also reason to believe that what the panda eats in nature and what he prefers to eat while living in captivity is quite different.

In captivity, small pandas generally ignore meat, leaning on plant foods. For this reason, some zoologists suggest that the data on the omnivorousness of the little panda is unreliable, and it is a vegetarian.

How much bamboo does a panda eat?

Given the rather impressive size of giant pandas, it becomes clear that they need a lot of food. However, even with this in mind, few people can imagine how much bamboo a panda weighing 150 kg eats. The daily "norm" of this plant for such an animal can reach thirty kilograms! This is about the same as if a person weighing 75 kilograms ate up to 15 kg of grass per day. The reason for this "gluttony" is the aforementioned poor absorption of this plant.

As for small pandas, their own weight is not so great, and the consumption rate is not so high. However, if we take into account the ratio of the small panda's own weight and the weight of the bamboo it eats, it turns out that the panda eats very abundantly and even surpasses the giant panda in this indicator. When there is no shortage of bamboo, red panda can eat more than 4 kg of young shoots and 1.5 kg of leaves per day. Considering that the small panda almost never weighs more than 6 kg, the food / body weight ratio is 1: 1. For comparison, for the giant panda, it is 1: 5.