GIANT PANDA - MOST ENDANGERED SPECIES

GIANT PANDA

The Giant Panda is definitely one of the most endangered species in the world. The decline in numbers of Giant Panda has many reasons. These reasons also count for other endangered species.

First of all it is the loss of habitat. Since the Giant Panda lives in bamboo forests of China and they were reduced by logging and cutting down the bamboo, the Giant Panda's territory is drastically reduced. Furthermore, the bamboo forest exists now are only small batches and this creates problems with breeding. One problem, the Giant Panda population is restricted to just a few living within that territory. The other problem is inbreeding which eventually arises. This can cause an awful lot of problem. Inbreeding can create health problems in a wide variety but also innate genes which will be a loss for future generation.

It is estimated that there are only a 1000 pandas living in the wild. It is established that no more than 100 pandas living in a single forest. Opening up the forest for agriculture had a terrible impact on the pandas' territory.

China introduced the death penalty to anyone poaching Giant Pandas. A pelt can fetch a very high price. However, in spite of facing the death penalty it doe not deter poacher.

Another problem has the panda itself. Pandas were original carnivores but they evolved to almost exclusively to a diet of bamboo. Apparently, their digestive system has not changed to their diet sufficiently. Therefore, the pandas have to eat his whole waking hours to get as much nutrients from the bamboo to survive.

Then there is another problem which concerns the bamboo itself. Large areas of bamboo will flower every 15-100 years and then die off. During this time pandas have to go to other areas where the bamboo is not flowering. Sometimes they have to move to lower altitudes and there they have to face humans as well as fragmentation. The panda is a very shy and solitary animal. All these conflicts do not help to preserve the species in the wild.

The female pandas give birth to one cub every other year and this also doesn't help to increase the population.

A BABY ONLY WEIGHS 100 TO 200 GRAM AT BIRTH

There are two kinds of pandas. The giant panda and the red panda are of the Ailurinae family. However, some scientist believes the Giant panda is a close relative to the bears and the red panda belongs to the raccoon family. The only thing they got in common is an extra thumb and also enlarged wrist to grip onto their vegetarian food.

The Giant Panda has all the body of a bear and lives in the mountain forest of China. Even so it eats mostly vegetation like bamboo, bulbs, roots and grasses.  Some times it does go back to his carnivorous habits and eats carrion and bamboo rats. It sits up to eat and hold the bamboo with his thumb. Even it has a muscular oesophagus and tough stomach; it has poor digestion because of the bamboo splinters. In order to get all the nutrients it has to eat large quantity of vegetation

RED PANDA

The red panda which is much smaller has a rich chestnut red coat. It has a cat-like appearance and a bushy tail. Its territories are in Nepal, India, Burma (Myanmar) and China. It feeds at night and it is assumed that it eats up in the tree. The females give birth to two blind young ones in a hollow tree. Males do not help. The young ones are ready to mate at 18 months.   

RED PANDA PLAYING