How long the Giant Panda has been around for
The Giant Panda has been in existence for many thousands of years, however western civilization first learned of the giant panda on 11 March 1869, when the French missionary, Armand David received a skin from a hunter. The first Westerner known to have seen a living giant panda is the German zoologist Hugo Weigold, who purchased a cub in 1916. In 1936, Ruth Harkness became the first Westerner to bring back a live giant panda, a cub named Su Lin which went to live at the Brookfield Zoo in Chicago. In 1938, five giant pandas were sent to London, however these practices were stopped because of wars and for the next half of the century, the West knew little of pandas.
Attributes
The giant panda has a black and white coat and has a body shape typical of bears. It has black fur on its ears, eye patches, muzzle, legs, arms and shoulders with the rest of its coat being white. It is not really known why pandas have such an unusual coloured coat it is thought that their bold coloring provides effective camouflage in their shade-dappled snowy and rocky habitat. The giant panda's thick, wooly coat keeps it warm in the cool forests of its habitat. It has large molar teeth and strong jaw-muscles for crushing tough bamboo.
Habitat
The Giant Panda lives in Mountain Ranges in central China, manly in Sichuan province, but also in the Shaanxi and Gansu provinces. As a result of farming, deforestation and other development, the Giant Panda has been driven out of the lowland areas where it once lived.
Size
Adults measure around 1.2 to 1.8 m long, including a tail of about 13 cm, and are around 60 to 90 cm tall. Males can weigh up to 160kg and females, who are generally smaller, weigh between 75 to 125kg.
Offspring
It is only recently that there has been success with captive breeding programs, and researchers have now determined giant pandas have comparable breeding to some populations of the American black bear, a thriving bear family. The current reproductive rate is considered one young every two years.
Giant pandas reach sexual maturity between the ages of four and eight, and may be reproductive until age 20. The mating season is between March and May. The gestation period ranges from 95 to 160 days.
Quite often twins are born, but usually only one survives in the wild. The mother will select the stronger of the cubs, and the weaker will die. The mother is thought to be unable to produce enough milk for two cubs, since she does not store fat. The father has no part in helping raise the cub.
When the cub is first born, it is pink, blind, and toothless and weighs only 90 to 130 grams, or about 1/800th of the mother's weight. It nurses from its mother's breast six to 14 times a day for up to 30 minutes at a time. For three to four hours, the mother may leave the den to feed, which leaves the cub defenseless. One to two weeks after birth, the cub's skin turns gray where its hair will eventually become black. A month after birth, the color pattern of the cub's fur is fully developed. Its fur is very soft and coarsens with age. The cub begins to crawl at 75 to 80 days; mothers play with their cubs by rolling and wrestling with them. The cubs are able to eat small quantities of bamboo after six months, though mother's milk remains the primary food source for most of the first year. Giant panda cubs weigh 45kg at one year, and live with their mothers until they are 18 months to two years old.
Giant pandas reach sexual maturity between the ages of four and eight, and may be reproductive until age 20. The mating season is between March and May. The gestation period ranges from 95 to 160 days.
Quite often twins are born, but usually only one survives in the wild. The mother will select the stronger of the cubs, and the weaker will die. The mother is thought to be unable to produce enough milk for two cubs, since she does not store fat. The father has no part in helping raise the cub.
When the cub is first born, it is pink, blind, and toothless and weighs only 90 to 130 grams, or about 1/800th of the mother's weight. It nurses from its mother's breast six to 14 times a day for up to 30 minutes at a time. For three to four hours, the mother may leave the den to feed, which leaves the cub defenseless. One to two weeks after birth, the cub's skin turns gray where its hair will eventually become black. A month after birth, the color pattern of the cub's fur is fully developed. Its fur is very soft and coarsens with age. The cub begins to crawl at 75 to 80 days; mothers play with their cubs by rolling and wrestling with them. The cubs are able to eat small quantities of bamboo after six months, though mother's milk remains the primary food source for most of the first year. Giant panda cubs weigh 45kg at one year, and live with their mothers until they are 18 months to two years old.