"Da Xiong Mao", the Chinese name for the giant panda means "great bear cat". Chinese books, written over 3000 years ago, talked the giant pandas already. Since then, they have been endowed with mystical powers capable of warding off natural disasters and evil spirits. The scientific name for giant pandas, Ailuropoda melanoleuca, simply means black and white bear.

For centuries, the giant panda has been considered to be very special and was kept in captivity as the pet of ancient Chinese emperors. Since its introduction to the western world in 1869 by a French missionary who shipped back a pelt to the Museum of Natural History in Paris, it has become the most revered animal in the world.

Giant pandas are classified bears by most scientists. Until recent time, giant pandas have been grouped with raccoons and lesser pandas (i.e., the Procyonidae family), which decision was based primarily on physiological evidence. In the late 1980's DNA serological studies clearly established that giant pandas are clearly more bears researchers, this does not seem warranted.

Population and Distribution

The giant pandas only exist at present in six small areas located in inland China, the habitat, suitable for the bamboo on which they survive, is a cold, damp coniferous forest. The elevation ranges from 4000 to 11000 feet high. In most of the areas in which they still roam, they must compete with farmers who farm the river valleys and the lower slopes of the mountains.

It is estimated that there are around 700 to 1000 giant pandas still alive in the wild. Because of their reliance on bamboo as their primary food, they will remain in significant danger unless their present habitat is expanded. The differing varieties of bamboo go through periodic death as part of their renewal cycle. Without the ability to move to new area which have not been affected, starvation and death will certainly occur for the giant panda. Such death of the bamboo also put the giant pandas in more direct contact with farmers and poachers as the bears try to find new areas in which to feed.

Vital Statistics

The giant panda is a large mammal that has the same general size and shape of the American black bear and the Asian black bear.

In general, adult giant pandas have a length of 51.4 to 6 feet. The weight of a adult male giant panda is normally between 176 and 276 pounds with males tipically weighing about 10% more than females.

With few natural enemies other than man, the lifespan of giant pandas in the wild is though to be twenty-five years or more.

Physical Characteristics

Giant pandas have a massive head, heavy body, short tail, rounded ears and palntigrade feet (both heel and toe make contract with the ground when walking in a mannr similar to humans).

A sedentary bear usually stays in a selected feeding area eating large amounts of bamboo, giant pandas generally move in a slow, determined manner. When startled, they will move at a slow trot to escape danger. Giant pandas, with their short claws, are capable of climbing trees very easily.

The head of the giant panda is very large and has developed large molars that are specifically designed to crush fibrous plant material. It has powerful muscles extending from the top of its head to the jaws giving it the capacity to crush tough stalks.

Even the throat of the giant panda has undergone significant evolution as the esophagus has a tough, horny lining to protect the bear from injury due to bamboo splinters. The stomach is similary protected with its thick muscular wall linings.

Giant pandas have forepaws that are extremely flexible. Evolution has given them a enlarged wrest bone (the radial sesamoid) that works in the manner of a opposal thumb. this highly functional adaptation allows the giant panda to manipulate their primary food source, bamboo stems and leaves, with dexterity and precision. The hind feet of the giant panda lack the heel pad found in the other seven bear species.

While members of the order Carnivore, giant pandas have evolved almost exclusively into vegetarians with accompanying changes in their dental structure and, also, to a lesser degree, the digestive tract. Their short intestine is not sufficiently developed to digest all of the available nutrients from the fibrous bamboo on which they feed.

The basic fur color of the giant panda is white black eye patshes, ears, legs, feet, chest and shouders. Within its natural environment (the deep forest and, at upper elevations, snow and rock), its mottled coloring provides camouflag. There is also speculation that its striking color pattern may be a clear message to other pandas to stay away as the giant panda is an extremely solitary animal.

The fur of the giant panda is thick and coarse. It consists of a coarse outer layer and a very dense, wooly-like underfur. To the touch, the fur feels oily. This oily protective coating helps giant pandas protect themselves from the cool and damp climate in which the bear live.

Home Range

The size of the home range will vary from 3.8 to 6.5 square kilometers (1.5 to 2.5 square miles). The range of an individual giant panda is shared with other bears. Females have been found to stay in quite small, discrete ranges only 75 to 100 acres in size. Males have a larger home range overlap the home ranges of several females.

Reproduction

Female giant pandas do not normally mature until they are 5 to 7 years of age. Copulation normally takes place in a manner similar to that of the canine (dog).

Mating begins in late-March and continues on into May. Similar to other bear species, the female stays in heat only a short time, normally two to seven days. Unlike any other bear, males will often roar to announce their presence to receptive females. Females may mate with several males during the breeding season.

Through a remarkable process referred to as delayed implantation, the fertilized ovum divides a few times and then floats free within the uterus for a few months until its development arrested. Sometime around June or July, the embryo will attach itself to the uterine wall and after a gestation period of eight weeks (August or September), the female giant panda will enter a rock cavity or hollow tree to deliver one or two cubs.

At birth, the cubs are blind and very tiny. They weigh from 90 to 130 grams (3 to 4 1/2 ounces). This is about the size of a chipmunk. The newborn cubs are covered with a fine white fur but will have acquired the typical giant panda's fur coloration within a month after birth.

The mother will use the maternity den for a month to a month and a half. Cradling the newborn cub in her forepaws, the mother will hold the cub suckling them similar to a human mother nursing her child. The female regularly leaves the den for two to three hours to forage nearby bamboo. Giant panda cubs begin to eat bamboo by the time they are 6 month old and are fully weaned by the time they are 9 months of age. At one year of age, the cubs normally weigh about 75 pounds.

Baby and Adolescent Mortality

Giant panda cubs are extremely vulnerable while the mother is away feedingon bamboo. During this time, the newborn is subject to threats from any other kinds of predatory animals.

The cubs will stay with the mother for the entire first year, normally they are driven off by their mothers as she prepares to breed once more.

The survival of giant panda cubs is totally dependent on the skills of the mother in both protecting them and teaching them the basics of what to eat, where and how to get it, how to cope with danger and all the other skills of living in the wild.

Hibernation

Giant pandas are one of the four bear species who do not hibernate. The reasons for this are twofold. First, the natural food source of these bears is not sufficiently high in calories and protein to allow them to put on sufficient fat resources to last a lengthy period of hibernation. Second, they live in a habitat zone where food is available around a year.