Giant panda - Ecology & Habitat

A daily menu of 12 to 38 kg of bamboo

Giant pandas inhabit the bamboo forest zone between 1,200 m and 3,400 m. Formerly they were found in riverine valleys at lower elevations, but these areas are now settled by humans. The major factors disturbing the panda habitat are conversion of forests to agricultural areas, medicinal herb collection, bamboo harvesting, poaching and large-scale development activities, e.g. road and hydropower development and mining.

Social Structure
Giant pandas are generally solitary, each adult having a well-defined home range, within which they move about regularly. Although they are not territorial, females do not tolerate other females and sub-adults within the core areas of their range.

Encounters are rare outside the brief mating season, but pandas communicate fairly often, mostly through vocalization and scent marking. As the animals move about, they mark their routes by spraying urine, clawing tree trunks, and rubbing against objects.

Life Cycle
A newborn panda cub weighs only 90-130 gr. and is about the size of a stick of butter. Pandas are dependent on their mothers for the first few months of their lives and are fully weaned at 8 to 9 months. Most pandas leave their mothers when she conceives again, usually at about 18 months. A panda's average life span in the wild is 14-20 years (but can live up to 30 years in captivity).

Breeding
Pandas are erroneously believed to be poor breeders, an impression rooted in the disappointing reproductive performance of captive pandas. But wild panda populations involved in long-term studies are known to have reproductive rates comparable to those of some populations of American black bears, which are thriving.

Giant pandas reach sexual maturity at 5.5 to 6.5 years. A female can mate with several males, who compete with each other to mate with her, and a male will seek out different females who are in heat. The mating season is in spring between March and May; males and females usually associate for no more than 2 to 4 days. Gestation takes about 97 to 163 days and pandas normally give birth to single young (twins seem to be born more frequently in captivity, when artificial insemination is used). The reproductive rate is about one young every two years.

Diet
The diet of pandas consists almost entirely of the leaves, stems, and shoots of various bamboo species. Only about 1% of their diet is made up of other plants and meat. Occasionally the panda will hunt for pikas and other small rodents.

The panda's digestive system is not designed to process plant matter and cannot easily break down the cellulose in bamboo, so the species must eat huge amounts - each day consuming between 12 and 38 kg of food, for up to 14 hours, stopping only to sleep or travel short distances.