Where do pandas live? Surely many will answer: of course, in China. But China is a huge country, and seeing a panda there is far from easy.

The places where pandas live are primarily due to the fact that pandas, although they are predators, are actually herbivores. In addition, they do not eat any plant food, but only one plant - bamboo.

Of the several hundred types of bamboo, the panda consumes only a few, which grow just where the pandas live.

A very rare animal that many people have never seen with their own eyes, except perhaps only on the TV screen or on the Internet. And this is not surprising, because there are now a little more than one and a half thousand pandas left on earth, and it is simply impossible for the majority to get to those places where pandas live in natural conditions. If other rare animals can be seen in zoos, then you can see the panda only in the single largest zoos in the world. And all this is due to the fact that the panda is not an ordinary animal, it is a predator that eats bamboo and does not recognize other food. For unknown reasons, many centuries ago, pandas switched to plant foods. Why exactly bamboo is difficult to answer, but most likely it was bamboo that was more accessible to pandas in their places of residence. And although bamboo is a subtropical plant found on many continents, it is in southeast Asia that it is most widespread and these are exactly the places where pandas live.

What continent does the panda live on?

The giant panda is a rather large animal, growing up to 150 kg. Although in appearance it looks like a real bear, but being a herbivore, in general, it is a rather peaceful animal. For this reason, the panda is very cautious and chooses to live in hard-to-reach places. But the panda constantly needs a lot of food, and since the main food for it is bamboo, the permanent habitat of the big panda is bamboo forests on the mountain slopes.

Currently, the panda lives only on the mainland. Eurasia.

One of the most extensive bamboo growing areas is the Tibet-Qinghai Plateau in southwestern China. These are the provinces of China: Qinghai, Sichuan, Yunnan, Gansu, Shaanxi, Chongqing, Guizhou and part of the Tibet Autonomous Region. These places were chosen by these bamboo bears and have been living here for hundreds and thousands of years. This region of central China with large areas of bamboo forests is the world's only habitat for the giant panda.


The population of China is constantly growing, and at such a pace that the Chinese need new territories. Over the past half century, the population has increased so much that these hard-to-reach regions where pandas live have begun to develop. More or less flat places in these provinces began to be cleared, bamboo forests were cut down, and the vacated land was turned into fields, towns and cities, forests in mountainous areas were cut down.

In China, bamboo has long been used as a material for construction, furniture and household utensils, which were used mainly by the locals. In places where bamboo grows, work was constantly carried out to harvest bamboo, and despite the fact that bamboo grows very quickly, bamboo forests did not have time to recover and their areas were catastrophically reduced. And for a normal existence, only one pair of pandas needs an area of ​​\u200b\u200babout three thousand hectares of bamboo forest.

With the advent of nano-technologies, new materials began to be obtained from bamboo: bamboo laminate, finishing materials, filler, textiles, which have gained worldwide recognition as natural and non-allergic substitutes for the once popular synthetic ones. This increased the demand for bamboo, and a boom in bamboo harvesting began in China. Bamboo thickets began to disappear before our eyes and the living space of the panda began to decrease catastrophically. Pandas living in the natural environment began to move higher into the mountains and further from people, their population began to decrease rapidly.


In order to preserve the population of this rare animal, the Chinese government began to take effective measures. In 1998, a law was passed to stop deforestation and create nature reserves and national parks. True, this is not a single area, but consisting of separate enclaves, and sometimes there are problems due to the fact that in some reserves there is a decrease in the growth of bamboo, and the pandas living there lack food, but nevertheless it gave results. The number of pandas began to increase, albeit little by little. In addition, the protection of forests saves China's ecosystem from destruction. Thus, at the source of the Yangtze River, one of the most important Chinese water arteries, the quality of water has significantly increased, and the creation of ecological tourism has become a good source of income for the population living in the mountains, who previously earned money by harvesting bamboo.

Where else does the panda live?

China is the only country in the world where the panda lives, its peculiar national symbol, along with the Great Wall of China. In no other country does the black-and-white panda live in natural conditions anymore. And in China, you can see a bamboo bear in almost only one place. After the largest panda reserve, Wolong, in Sichuan province, was badly damaged by an earthquake in 2008, the bulk of the pandas were moved to a panda breeding research center near Chengdu, the capital of Sichuan. Over time, this center in the Bifengxia district of Ya'an town has become the world's largest panda zoo.

This center has all the conditions for living and breeding of these animals. Pandas are not kept in enclosures, as is usually the case in zoos, but almost in natural conditions in large areas on which special log structures are built, on which pandas can have fun. The center has special services: a kind of "kindergarten" for kids, a hospital, a laboratory, a science center and a museum. Pandas are fed with chopped bamboo harvested in the mountains and various food additives. Today, this center is home to the largest population of pandas in the world.

Of course, you can see a panda live without a trip to China. Since the panda is a very interesting animal, people have long tried to capture them and keep them in zoos, although this was quite a difficult task. In 1959, there were only 7 pandas in the zoos of the world, 5 of which were in the Beijing Zoo and one each in the Moscow Zoo and the London Zoological Society Zoo. Now they are in many zoos around the world.

pandas in zoos

For a very large fee, the Chinese rent pandas to famous zoos.

  • Schönbrunn Zoo in Austria
  • Atlanta Zoo in USA
  • zoo in adelaide australia
  • zoo madrid in spain
  • Edinburgh Zoo in UK; River Safari in Singapore
  • the Memphis Zoo in the USA; Ocean Park in Hong Kong
  • the San Diego Zoo in the US; Smithsonian National Zoo in the United States
  • zoo in berlin germany
  • Zoo in Chiang Mai, Thailand
  • taipei zoo in taiwan
  • ueno zoo in japan
  • Toronto Zoo, Canada
  • zoo Beauval in France; zoo in mexico city mexico
  • Shirahama Amusement Park in Japan


There are no pandas in Russian zoos now, but in the fifties of the last century there were pandas in the Moscow Zoo. The first panda came to Russia in 1955. According to more reliable sources, it was a rather young individual, a male, and then he weighed only 20 kg, that is, he was very young. According to the rules adopted in China, each panda has a name, ours was called Ping Ping. They created quite decent conditions for him, but there were problems with food. Bamboo does not grow in the Moscow region, it had to be delivered by plane from Abkhazia, so in addition to bamboo, it was taught to eat local food. Ping-Ping received per day: 500 bamboo sprouts with leaves, 2 kg of oatmeal or rice porridge with milk, 2 eggs, 400 grams of fruit juice, 3-4 carrots, tea with sugar and birch or willow branches. Ping Ping lived until 1961 and died at the age of 6. Probably the cause of early death was improper conditions of detention and feeding, he ate a lot and moved little, in the spring of 1960 his weight reached 185 kilograms.


In 1959, they bought another An-An panda, they wanted to create a pair, but it turned out to be also a male. An An was also fed a little with bamboo, but mainly his food was: cereals, fruits, vegetables, sweet tea, and instead of bamboo, birch, willow and linden brooms. Oddly enough, he got used to this food and grew up quite normally. Its weight reached more than 150 kg, and it was about 1.5 meters long. He lived until 1972. He died at the age of 15.


Zoologists have repeatedly tried to get offspring in captivity. And Chinese specialists have begun to succeed. This was also decided to be done in Europe. In the zoo of the Zoological Society of London there was a panda - a female named Chi-Chi. In 1966, the leadership of the London Zoological Society suggested that the Moscow Zoo try to pair the female Chi-Chi with the male An-An. The English panda was brought to Moscow by plane and tried to bring it to An-An. But the friendship didn't work out. Moreover, both pandas showed great aggression towards each other, arranged real fights between themselves, and they had to be separated, sometimes even with the help of hoses and shots from guns. Six months were unsuccessful and Chi-Chi was taken back to London. In 1968, they tried to repeat the experiment, this time An-An was taken to London, where he spent six months, but also to no avail, the pandas could not find a common language.


After that, the Russians were able to see live pandas only in 2001, when, during the Days of Beijing Culture in Moscow, two pandas were brought to the Moscow Zoo. For this, a special agreement was concluded between the parties, in which all parties to the delivery and maintenance of pandas were stipulated. They were accompanied by Chinese specialists, and just in case, insurance was concluded for a huge amount. Pandas, a four-year-old male Ben-Ben and a nine-year-old female Ven-Ven stayed at the Moscow Zoo for only two months. Visitors to the Moscow Zoo these days were twice as many as usual, and on Sunday it was almost impossible to get there at all. By the way, both pandas who visited Russia were born in the Beijing Zoo. Their names are also not arbitrary: so the 9-year-old female panda Wen-Wen got her name in honor of the director of the zoo Comrade Wen, and the male Ben-Ben, which means Goby in Chinese, is named so because he was born in the year of the Ox. They were kept in different cages.


A special pavilion "China" is currently being built at the Moscow Zoo, in which, as promised in the press, black-and-white and red pandas from Chengdu will live. Under what conditions pandas will be handed over has not yet been reported, but in any case, Muscovites and guests of the capital will soon be able to see these amazing animals with their own eyes.

Pandas are two completely different species of mammals that live in China and India. The giant panda belongs to the bear family, and the red panda belongs to the marten-like superfamily.

Where does the giant panda live?

The habitat of the giant panda is the mountainous regions that are located in the heart of China: Sichuan and Tibet. In the Sichuan region, giant pandas have a typical black and white coloration. The Tibetan subspecies differs both in color and in size. The fur of the bear is brown-white, and in size it is significantly inferior to its relative from Sichuan. Both subspecies live in high mountain regions at an altitude of 1300-3100 m above sea level. To see a giant panda, a tourist will have to overcome a very difficult and long journey. If there is no desire to wander through the thickets of bamboo, you can visit the zoos of the world where pandas live. Or visit the panda research and breeding center in Chengdu, China.

The center of Chengdu, in addition to being engaged in scientific activities, operates as a national park. You can visit it any day of the week. In the center for pandas, all the conditions are recreated so that they feel like in a natural habitat.

You can also see the giant panda in zoos in Europe, the USA, Australia, China, Canada, Singapore, Hong Kong, Japan, Thailand and Taiwan.

In Europe, there are zoos with pandas in such cities: Vienna in Austria, Madrid in Spain, Berlin in Germany, Saint-Aignan in France, Edinburgh in the UK.

You can see pandas in the USA at several zoos in Atlanta, San Diego, Memphis and the US National Zoo in Washington.

Where does the red panda live?

The red panda lives in four countries: China, Nepal, Bhutan and Myanmar. Just like the giant panda, the red panda is endangered and listed in the Red Book. Although the animal is considered endangered in some regions of its habitat, hunting for it continues. To prevent the species from disappearing, various activities are carried out that contribute to the growth of the population.

In addition to its natural habitat, the red panda can be seen in 85 zoos around the world.

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

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

The phenomenon 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 called Ursus melanoleucus, that is, "black and white bear." However, the scientific minds of France 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 the raccoon-like body, stripes on the muzzle and a long, ringed tail shows who her ancestors were closely related to.

And decades after this discovery, a new animal, which was called the giant panda (Ailuropoda melanoleuca), remained mysterious and practically unexplored, and due to the inaccessibility of habitats, it was an extremely tempting trophy not only for naturalists, but also for hunters. It wasn't until 1928 that Theodore Roosevelt Jr.'s expedition managed to track down and shoot a panda.

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

After the Second World War, Mei-Mei, Ming, Grumpy, Sonya, Grandmother, Pan-Di, Pan-Da, Pin-Ping, Chi-Chi, An-An, Li-Li were in captivity of zoos. And in 1972, Ling-Ling and Tsing-Tsing, a gift from the Chinese government of the United States, arrived at the Washington Zoo. In the zoos, there was no end to visitors - everyone wanted to admire the funny antics of overseas miracle bears, while experts, meanwhile, collected information to draw up 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.

Scientists have long argued about which family the giant panda belongs to - bears or raccoons, and only relatively recently it was recognized as a bear.

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

Like bears, giant pandas are massive and slow land animals averaging 160 cm long, weighing up to 140 kilograms, and yet, again like many bears, they are able to climb trees well. Short legs with sharp and long claws help them in this. On the trees, bamboo bears hide from danger or sleep. Especially in the art of climbing trees, young individuals succeed.

The tail of a bamboo bear reaches 10-12 cm. The whole body of the beast 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 in her mountain shelter has no dangerous enemies. Other scientists are of the opinion that such coloring makes animals more visible to the opposite sex (and pandas have poor eyesight), which is of great importance during the mating season.

All scientists agree that the giant panda is a special animal. Under 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 the provinces of Gansu and Shaanxi.

conservation status

The panda is loved and appreciated not only for its touching appearance, magnificent black and white outfit, peaceful behavior and mysterious life story, but also for its rarity.

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

Since 1990, giant pandas have been listed as endangered. Fortunately, today their population is growing, and in the Red Book since 2016 they appear as animals in a “vulnerable position”. So, if in 2004 there were 1596 bamboo bears, then by 2014 - already 1864 (and this is 2 times more than at the end of the 1970s). Today, the panda is under the protection of the Wild Animal Protection Act, according to which the extermination of this animal 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 is not only a 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 People's Republic of China, the national symbol of the 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 (who created the Red Book) to create the famous emblem of the World Wildlife Fund.

The inaccessibility and remoteness of the Himalayan shelter of giant pandas, as well as the measures taken by the state to protect them, protect animals from the bullets of hunters. A bamboo curtain hides them from the eyes of inquisitive zoologists in these inhospitable mountains. That is why no one has yet been able to make any systematic observations 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 its study in zoos has not helped much to lift the veil of secrecy so far.

Giant panda lifestyle

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

The relatives of the panda are not too favored, each animal has its own territory and protects it as best it can. The individual territory of a male can reach an area of ​​about 30 sq. km, of a female - 5-10 sq. km. The male's area 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 almost the 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 - the beast grinds them with powerful jaws with powerful molars. The unique "sixth claw" - an elongated carpal bone with a fleshy pad - helps the bear to hold the mouth-watering stems in its paw. This bone has developed into a kind of opposing thumb.

Look at the photo of a panda chewing bamboo - the beast is spread out freely, sits on its hind legs and methodically thrusts the stems into its mouth, grabbing them with its back teeth.

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

Bamboo is a monotonous and low-nutrient food, it is absorbed by the body with difficulty, and therefore animals have to chew almost all the time they are awake - for 10-12 hours, 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 like bleating, barking, and beeping. They also squeak, grumble, moan and even “chirp”.


Pandas at the zoo. Animals have started a fuss, although usually they pay little attention to each other in full accordance with the solitary lifestyle characteristic of this species.

The fact that giant pandas are one of the rarest species of animals can be explained to some extent by their very low birth rate. Estrus in females occurs 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 the mating has taken place, the animals return to their former measured and secluded way of life. Pregnancy lasts 100-150 days. Pandas are characterized by delayed implantation of the blastocyst by 1-3 months. Females give birth every 2-3 years, starting at the age of four

Before giving birth, the female finds refuge in a hollow tree or in a cave, gives birth to cubs and remains in the same place for about a month. Bamboo bears are completely helpless to newborns, they are one of the smallest (relative to the size of the 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.

Giant panda cubs are born like this

If a panda gives birth to 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 cub feeds on mother's milk for approximately 47 weeks, and then begins to switch to adult food, but it can live with its mother for up to a year and a half. Becoming independent, some of the juveniles settle in the area overlapping with the mother, others go long distances.

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

Zookeepers feed the baby

In captivity, pandas feel quite comfortable, but do not show a desire to continue their race, this is especially true for males. Widely publicized attempts to get offspring from Chi-Chi, kept in the London Zoo, and An-Anya from the Moscow Zoo, did not produce results. Experiments at the Beijing Zoo were more successful: at least two cubs were born there in captivity.

Since 1990, captive breeding of pandas, thanks to artificial insemination, has made great strides. However, the captive bamboo bear population is still not self-sustaining.

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

Panda (or bamboo bear) is a representative of mammals from the raccoon family. Pandas are the name of two species of Asian mammals from the order of carnivores, similar to each other both in appearance and in lifestyle, but belonging to different families. The body length of the giant panda reaches 1.5 meters, and with a tail - 12.5 cm more. Its mass reaches 160 kg.

Where the panda lives, the lifestyle and habits of this cute animal will be discussed in this article.

It should be noted that now only a little more than 1500 animals have survived in natural conditions, in connection with this the panda is listed in the famous Red Book. Steps are being taken to conserve and prevent their extinction in order to increase the number of these cute animals.

Panda - an animal resembling a raccoon or a bear

The appearance of a panda strongly resembles a bear. However, they have differences: a different structure of the teeth and a different length of the tail. Panda has long been considered a "huge raccoon", due to the similarity of the anatomical features of a raccoon with a small panda (it was unconditionally considered a raccoon).

The peasants of China have always called this animal "polar bear", and also "bamboo bear", which turned out to be closer to the truth, which scientists finally figured out quite recently.

Usually these animals live in bamboo forests in dense thickets in China, on the islands of Kalimantan and Indonesia.

In order to eat, the adult organism of the “bamboo bear” needs to eat about 18 kg of young shoots and stalks of succulent bamboo during the day. The animal grinds greens with its jaws. This is a very nutritious food, and therefore all his free time (about 12 hours a day) the panda is forced to chew.

In addition to this food, she can also eat carrion. These are small birds and animals that a real bear uses very rarely, only in exceptional cases.

Those places where pandas live (the country of China and the islands) for these rare exotic animals are both a good shelter and the main source of food.

Lifestyle

The bamboo plant blooms quite rarely: once in 10, it happens in 100 years, depending on their species. With all this, they all bloom at once and form seeds, and then they all die out at the same time over a large area. Bamboo seeds take root in at least a year, and in order for new thickets to appear, at least 20 years must pass. In this regard, pandas have to search for new habitats where they could feed themselves and their cubs.

In the wild, where the panda lives, not everything is so optimistic. The “bamboo bear” lives alone, and only once a year (during the mating season) meets with a female or male to breed. As a result, only one and rarely two completely naked, helpless and blind cubs are born.

The eyes of newborns open only after a month, and after only 3 weeks, fur appears. The weight of the baby at birth is only 175 grams, he gains up to 4 kilograms by 2 months, and even up to 160 kg by adulthood.

Panda in the Red Book

Pandas living in nature have a hard time: a person deforests during the development of territories, and therefore most of the individuals do not find their partners in a short period of three-day mating time and, as a result, remain without offspring. Thus, the population is reduced (about 700 individuals).

The panda has long been included in the Red Book, and each newly born animal is a great value and a very joyful event.

At this time in China, where the panda lives, the animal is considered a national treasure of this country. Surprisingly wonderful Panda is a symbol of friendship and peace. Thanks to such a careful attitude towards this animal, many individuals live under the strict protection of national reserves.

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

Big panda

Although the panda belongs to the bear family, the appearance and behavior of this animal seems to deny this. Panda has an interesting black and white color. 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 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 resort to such 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 in the wild is located in the mountainous regions of China, in Tibet and Sichuan. Pandas can also be found in zoos in Europe, the USA, Japan and China. In zoos, these animals are a highlight, people pay big money to pet them and take pictures with them. And zookeepers compete for the right to be their observers. Interestingly, the giant panda is the only panda species that belongs to the bear family and not the panda family!


These animals can also roll down hills, curled up into a ball. Many people think that these are games, but they are not! In the wild, animals similarly protect themselves from predators by escaping from them. Although we consider the panda to be a friendly animal, it is worth remembering that it is primarily a predator. In Beijing Zhang Zoo, at least three cases of attacks by these animals have been recorded, of course, through the fault of a person! But the fact remains.

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

Funny and still cute!