The Giant panda (Ailuropoda melanoleuca), is a also known as the Panda, to distinguish it from the unrelated Red Panda, is a bear native to the south central China. It is easily recognized by the large, distinctive black patches around its eyes, over the ears, and across its round body. It is not clear why the panda has black and white patterns on its body, but some scientists believe that the coloring acts as camouflage against its habitat. Though it belongs to the order Carnivora, the panda's diet is 99% bamboo. Pandas in the wild will occasionally eat other grasses, wild tubers, or even meat in the form of birds, rodents or carrion. In captivity, they may receive honey, eggs, fish, yams, shrub leaves, oranges, or bananas along with specially prepared food. They can live up to twenty to thirty years in captivity.
The Giant Panda lives in a few mountain ranges in central China, mainly in Sichuan province, but also in the Shaanxi and Gansu provinces. As a result of farming, deforestation and other development, the panda has been driven out of the lowland areas where it once lived. They generally live in broadleaf and coniferous forests between the elevations of five thousand to ten thousand feet.
The panda is a conservation reliant endangered species. A 2007 report shows 239 pandas living in captivity inside China and another 27 outside the country. Wild population estimates vary; one estimate shows that there are about 1,590 individuals living in the wild, while a 2006 study via DNA analysis estimated that this figure could be as high as 2,000 to 3,000. Some reports also show that the number of pandas in the wild is on the rise. However, the IUCN does not believe there is enough certainty yet to reclassify the species from Endangered to Vulnerable.
Giant Pandas begin breeding when they are four to eight years old; they stop when they are twenty years old. Females ovulate every spring. They can only conceive within the two or three days around ovulation. After mating, they give birth within 160 days to usually two cubs. The cubs are white at birth; they gain their colors later on as they age. They are born blind and develop their eyesight when they are six to eight weeks old. Most of the time, only 100 cubs survive. Throughout the females' lives, they can raise five to to eight cubs. The 100 cubs all fight with each other to get the food since there is very little. They do moves like World Wrestling Championships and at the end only 50 survive since they kill each other.
In the wild, the Giant Panda is a terrestrial animal and primarily spends its life roaming and feeding in the bamboo forests of the Qinling Mountains and in the hilly Sichuan Province. Giant pandas are generally solitary, and each adult has a defined territory, and a female is not tolerant of other females in her range. Pandas communicate through vocalization and scent marking such as clawing trees or spraying urine. They are able to climb and take shelter in hollow trees or rock crevices, but do not establish permanent dens. For this reason, pandas do not hibernate, which is similar to other subtropical mammals, and will instead move to elevations with warmer temperatures. Pandas rely primarily on spatial memory rather than visual memory. Social encounters occur primarily during the brief breeding season in which pandas in proximity to one another will gather. After mating, the male leaves the female alone to raise the cub. Pandas need to eat twenty-eight pounds of bamboo a day. They sit like humans while eating , so their front paws are free to grasp nearby bamboos. Their digestive system is similar to a carnivore's, so most of the food is turned into waste since they can't digest it, They spend twelve to fourteen hours a day eating.