150 Interesting Facts About Giant Pandas

The giant panda, also known as the panda bear (or simply the panda), is a bear species endemic to China. It is characterized by its bold black-and-white coat and rotund body. The name "giant panda" is sometimes used to distinguish it from the red panda, a neighboring musteloid. Though it belongs to the order Carnivora, the giant panda is a folivore, with bamboo shoots and leaves making up more than 99% of its diet. Giant pandas in the wild 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.

Today in This post we are going to share Interesting Facts About Giant Pandas. Please share this post with friends. I hope you like this post.

Interesting Facts About Pandas

Newborn pandas are pink!
Pandas eat consistently for 12-14 hours a day!
The panda spends 14-16 hours a day eating bamboo.
Male pandas do a handstand while peeing to mark trees.
Giant pandas are very comfortable and confident swimmers.
Giant pandas first appeared on Earth 2-3 million years ago
Pandas have lived on Earth for two to three million years.
Xiao Qi Ji’s favorite treat is a grape-flavored fruitsicle.
After Xiao Qi Ji was born, Mei Xiang didn’t eat for 12 days.
Adult panda bears can weigh as much as 45 kilos (100 pounds).
An adult giant panda weighs about 200-300 pounds (90-135 kg).
Panda cubs can climb trees at just the young age of six months!
In China, giant pandas are considered to be national treasures.
A giant panda has one of the highest bite forces of any carnivore
A giant panda can peel and eat a bamboo shoot in about 40 seconds.
Giant panda mothers gently pick up cubs with their mouths to move them.
Although females may give birth to twins, usually only one cub survives.
A panda’s throat has a special lining to protect it from bamboo splinters.
Panda fossils have confirmed their extinct from one to two million years ago!
A panda fur is worth between $60,000 and $100,000 on the illegal trade market.
Mei Xiang and Tian Tian’s favorite treat is an apple juice-flavored fruitsicle.
Pandas communicate through scent marking throughout their habitat and territory.
The Smithsonian’s National Zoo's giant panda Hsing-Hsing died at age 28 in 1999.
A panda’s jaws are so strong, they have a bite strength similar to that of a lion!
Giant panda mothers will breathe heavily on their cubs to keep them warm and humid.
In the past, the Zoo accepted donations of bamboo from the public — but not anymore.
The first giant panda ever to be born in captivity was born in a Beijing zoo in 1963.
Pandas are pigeon-toed; in other words, they walk with their front paws turned inward.
Mother pandas in captivity give birth to twins more often than mothers in the wild do.
Pandas are the most expensive animal in the world to keep, five times more than elephants
Female pandas ovulate only once a year. They are fertile only two or three days of the year.
The Smithsonian National Zoo's Giant Panda Cams have been viewed more than 100 million times.
There are only about 240 captive pandas in the world. They are all part of a breeding program.
The giant panda's black and white coloring reflects the harmony embodied in yin and yang symbol
Giant pandas have 42 teeth. Like humans, giant pandas have two sets of teeth in their lifetime.
“Giant panda” is actually just a nickname for a panda; they are no specifically larger than others.
Giant panda mothers lick their cubs to help them urinate and defecate in their first weeks of life.
It takes about five years for a female cub to become an adult and up to seven years for a male cub.
From 1974-1989, half of the panda’s habitat in China’s Sichuan areas was destroyed by human activity.
On special occasions, such as birthdays, the pandas receive a huge frozen cake. Watch how one is made!
More than half of newborn pandas die from diseases or from being accidentally crushed by their mothers.
There are about 15 giant pandas in zoos outside of China. Chinese zoos display another 90 captive animals.
Under its fur, the skin of a giant panda is black where its fur is black, and pink where its fur is white.
Giant pandas have a very good sense of smell. Even at night, they can find the best bamboo stalks by scent.
Mei Xiang and Tian Tian have never successfully mated. All their cubs were born via artificial insemination.
Giant pandas reach breeding maturity between 4 and 8 years old. They can have offspring until their early 20s.
Zoo staff never enter an enclosure with an adult giant panda. Like all bears, pandas are potentially dangerous.
On average, a panda eats 25-30 pounds of bamboo in one day. In the spring, a panda may eat 100 pounds in a day.
Volunteers operate these cameras and choose the two best views to share with the public via the Giant Panda Cam.
Panda researchers have counted 11 different panda calls—and four of them are used only when searching for a mate.
Panda cubs can be as small as a stick of butter- they are approximately 1/900th the size of their mother at birth.
Giant pandas still have the digestive tract of a carnivore, which means bamboo is a highly inefficient energy source
The Chinese once hunted giant pandas because they believed that its pelt provided magical protection against evil spirits
Male pandas are not involved in the care of their cubs. Fathers and their cubs may never encounter each other in the wild.
Giant pandas do not hibernate because their bamboo diet will not allow them to build up enough fat reserves for the winter.
Though there are many theories, scientists are not certain why giant pandas have their distinctive black-and-white markings.
Pandas are solitary animals but will vocalize during social interactions. They sometimes chirp, honk, bleat, chomp and bark.
All giant panda cubs born at the Smithsonian’s National Zoo depart at around 4 years old to join breeding programs in China.
Except for a marsupial (such as an opossum), a giant panda baby is the smallest mammal newborn relative to its mother's size
Newborn giant panda cubs are born pink, hairless and blind. They weigh 3-5 ounces and are about the size of a stick of butter.
Giant pandas have evolved a unique “thumb” which they use to hold bamboo stalks. This thumb is actually a modified wrist bone.
The word “panda” may have developed from the Nepalese word poonya, which means “bamboo-eating animal” or “plant-eating animal.”
The Zoo’s Giant Panda Cam program launched in 1999 and continues to this day, with about 40 cameras operating at any given time.
Climate change threatens the giant panda’s habitat. Everyone can help make a difference by using water and energy more efficiently.
Although pandas eat mostly bamboo and fruit, their teeth are carnivorous, meaning they would be able to chew and consume tough meat.
The eyespots of a giant panda cub are initially in the shape of a circle. As the cub grows, the circles become shaped like a teardrop.
As few as 1,864 giant pandas live in their native habitat, while another 600 pandas live in zoos and breeding centers around the world.
Pandas have sometimes been seen rolling down slopes. While they may be playing, they may also be trying to dislodge twigs from their fur.
A giant panda's digestive system is more similar to that of a carnivore than an herbivore, and much of what pandas eat is passed as waste.
Keeping even a single panda in a zoo is expensive. A panda costs five times more to keep than the next most expensive animal, an elephant.
Smithsonian scientists have produced more than 150 papers on groundbreaking biological and ecological discoveries related to giant pandas.
Young pandas stay with the mothers for as long as three years, which means that a wild panda may raise only three or four cubs in a lifetime.
Pandas, although native to China, are one of the few indigenous wildlife species that were never hunted for use in traditional Chinese medicine.
A pair of breeding pandas needs more than 11 square miles of land. One giant panda usually needs between 2.5 to 4 square miles of land to survive.
Much of the food that a giant panda eats is not digested. An adult giant panda in the spring can produce about 62 pounds of droppings in 24 hours.
Giant pandas have a "pseudo thumb," formed by an elongated and enlarged wrist bone covered with a fleshy pad of skin, which helps them grasp bamboo.
Although a giant panda’s fur looks silky and soft, it is quite thick and wiry. The hair of an adult giant panda can grow up to 4 inches (10 cm) long.
Giant pandas have been the symbol of the international conservation organization WWF, or the World Wide Fund for Nature, since it was founded in 1961.
On all fours, a giant panda stands about 3 feet (.9 m) tall at the shoulder and measures about 5 feet (1.5 m) long. Males are about 10% larger than females.
Giant pandas and red pandas are not as closely related as their names suggest. Red pandas are actually more closely related to raccoons than to giant pandas!
The average lifespan of a wild giant panda is 15-20 years. Captive giant pandas can live up to 30 years. The record age for a captive giant panda is 38 years.
Adult pandas are so large that they do not have many natural enemies. Snow leopards, however, will prey on vulnerable panda cubs or old and sick adult pandas.
Smithsonian scientists have trained more than 1,500 students and professionals in China on techniques for studying and conserving giant pandas and their habitat.
There is only one species of pandas (Ailuropoda melanoleuca or “black-and-white cat foot”). Wild pandas live only in small pockets of land in southwestern China.
Giant pandas are fertile for less than three days each year. Smithsonian scientists developed ways to predict that window of time to improve chances for pregnancy.

Cool Facts About Pandas

Like other bears, pandas can swim! They do not, however, hibernate, as they are unable to store energy over long periods of time (hence their 12-hour eating routine).
The Chinese call giant pandas daxiongmao or “large bear cat.” Pandas have also been known as “beast of prey,” “white leopard,” “iron eating beast,” and “bamboo bear.”
The greatest threat to wild giant pandas is habitat loss. Smithsonian scientists and colleagues are working to restore bamboo forests in the Qinling mountains of China.
The giant pandas at the Zoo have air-conditioned grottos and misting sprays in their outdoor enclosure so the pandas can stay outside all summer long, if they choose to.
Giant pandas are on the brink of extinction, with just over 1,000 pandas left in the world. Scientists are hoping to increase the wild panda population to 5,000 by 2025.
A panda mother is 900 times bigger than her newborn cub, which weighs less than 5 oz. In comparison, an 8-pound human baby would have a mother that weighed 7,200 pounds.
At 1/900th the size of its mother, a giant panda baby is the smallest mammal newborn relative to its mother's size, except for a marsupial, such as a kangaroo or opossum.
A panda’s entire mating process takes only about two or three days. Once they have mated, females chase the males out of their territory and raise their cubs on their own.
Mei Xiang gave birth to Xiao Ji QI at age 22, making her the oldest panda to give birth in the United States — and probably the second oldest in the world (that we know of).
Pandas do not run fast—a slow trot is as fast as they can go. The fastest bear is the black bear, which can run 35 miles per hour. That’s about as a fast as a horse or deer.
To make up for their inefficient digestion, pandas need to consume a comparatively large amount of food — from 70 to 100 pounds of bamboo each day — to get all their nutrients.
Pandas can stand upright, but their short hind legs aren’t strong enough to support their bodies. A panda’s bones are twice as heavy as the bones of other animals the same size.
It is very rare to see more than one panda at a time in the wild. Giant pandas cannot afford the energy it would take to compete with one another for food, territory, and mates.
The Zoo's Department of Nutrition grows bamboo at the Smithsonian Conservation Biology Institute. It also cuts bamboo from 20 stands located in the greater Washington, D.C., area.
Giant panda cubs may stay with their mothers for up to three years before striking out on their own. This means that a wild female, at best, can produce young only every other year.
There are 300 species of bamboo in China. There are about 25 different kinds in the mountains where the pandas live. Pandas especially like to eat umbrella, arrow, and golden bamboo.
Smithsonian scientists created the framework for how pandas are bred to improve breeding success and genetic diversity. Zoos across the globe now use this same tool for other animals!
Fashion designer and socialite Ruth Harkness (1900-1947), without training or experience, became the first Westerner to capture and present a live giant panda to the world outside China.
Pandas have been a symbol of peace in China. For example, hundreds of years ago, warring tribes in China would raise a flag with a picture of a panda on it to stop a battle or call a truce.
Mei Xiang and Tian Tian, the Zoo’s adult panda pair, arrived in 2000. The pair and their cub will stay at the Zoo until 2023 through an agreement with China Wildlife Conservation Association.
Mei Xiang has given birth to four cubs that survived to adulthood: Tai Shan (male born in 2005), Bao Bao (female born in 2013), Bei Bei (male born in 2015), and Xiao Qi Ji (male born in 2020).
Pandas rely less on visual memory than they do on spatial memory to locate a mate’s home range area and preferred patches of bamboo. Spatial memory is defined as the ability to remember a location.
A lot of science goes into feeding pandas and other animals! At the Zoo, giant pandas eat specially formulated nutritious biscuits, carrots, sweet potatoes and apples. Sweet potatoes are a favorite.
A giant panda usually gives birth to a single cub. Sometimes twins are born, but when this happens, the mother typically ignores the weaker cub. She does not have enough energy to care for two cubs.
Bears in the wild, including giant pandas, give birth in dens on a bedding of twigs, often in hollows of large logs or trees, or in caves. At the Zoo, keepers provide a small enclosure for pandas to “nest” in.
Some scientists believe that the giant panda is a remnant species, meaning that it is becoming extinct naturally, not just because of human activity. Other scientists believe that the panda’s problems are directly caused by humans.
The giant panda has been on the endangered species list since 1990. The most significant threats to pandas are habitat loss and poaching. China is only approximately 5% greater than the U.S. in area but has four times the population.
The Zoo’s first pandas, Ling-Ling and Hsing-Hsing, were a gift from Chinese Premier Zhou Enlai to the American people in 1972 after First Lady Patricia Nixon mentioned how much she loved them at a dinner in Beijing, China, earlier that year.
Giant pandas are so cute because their large cheeks, snub noses, and tottering gate remind us of human infants. Additionally, the dark patches over their eyes make their eyes appear larger, which also is similar to an infant's supersize eyes.
Panda pregnancies last between 90 and 180 days, with an average pregnancy lasting 135 days. This wide variation in gestation occurs because the fertilized egg usually floats freely in the mother's uterus before it implants and begins developing.
Giant pandas can experience pseudopregnancy. A pseudopregnancy mimics a real pregnancy, but instead of giving birth at the end of it, a giant panda's hormones and behaviors return to normal. Mei Xiang is believed to have had at least six pseudopregnancies.
Pandas have plantigrade feet. This means their entire foot (toes and heel) touches the ground when walking, which is similar to the way humans, other bears, and rodents walk. Other animals, such as dogs, cats, and horses walk with their weight on their toes.
Pandas are no longer an endangered species, thanks in part to Smithsonian research! Scientists and conservationists have worked to restore the giant panda’s habitat and increase breeding in human care. Giant pandas are still considered a “vulnerable” species.
It was not until the 20th century that giant pandas became known to the rest of the world outside of China. The first live giant Panda to leave China in 1936 was named Su-Lin (“a little bit of something very cute”). He arrived at the Brookfield Zoo in Chicago.
After giving birth, giant panda mothers don’t eat for a very long time! Their focus during this time is nurturing and protecting their cubs, rather than eating. Scientists have observed giant panda mothers in the wild go as long as one month without eating or drinking.
It has been illegal to kill pandas in China since the 1960s, but the laws were not enforced strictly. In 1987, the laws were strengthened to increase punishment from two years to a life sentence or even death. Today the punishment is less severe: 10-20 years in prison.
Scientists are not sure how long giant pandas live in the wild, but it is shorter than panda lifespan in zoos. They estimate that lifespan is about 15-20 years for wild pandas and about 30 years for those in human care. Chinese scientists have reported zoo pandas as old as 38.
Giant pandas have been driven out of the lowland areas where they used to live and now are found only in the Chinese provinces of Sichuan, Gansu, and Shaanxi. The forests in these provinces are very damp and rainy. In one year, a forest may receive up to 50 inches of rain and snow.
Although 99% of their diet is bamboo, a panda’s digestive system is designed for meat. In fact, pandas absorb only 20%-30 % of bamboo nutrients. Other plant eaters such as deer absorb around 80%. This means the panda has to eat most of the time it is awake to get enough nutrients to survive.
The Sichuan tribe in China believes that panda urine can dissolve a swallowed needle. They also believe that sleeping on a panda pelt helps keep away ghosts and helps foretell the future. In the Quin dynasty (220 B.C.), an early dictionary called Er Ya, claimed that a panda’s pelt could help control menses.
Unlike the rest of the bear family, pandas do not use facial expressions to communicate. When one panda wants to threaten another, it stares at its opponent with its head down. Researchers believe a panda may do that so that its black ears will look like another pair of eyes against the white fur of its neck.
The gestation period for giant pandas varies from 97-163 days. This wide range is due to delayed implantation, which means that after a giant panda becomes pregnant, the cub starts to grow only if the mother panda is able to get enough food. Once the cub starts to develop, it takes about 45-60 days before it is born.
After Richard Nixon visited China in 1972, he received two pandas from the Chinese leader, Chairman Mao. The two pandas, Ling-Ling and Hsing-Hsing, were placed in the National Zoo in Washington D.C. More than 1 million people visited them during their first year there. Nixon was the first U.S. president to ever visit China.
Many Chinese philosophers believe that the universe is made from two opposing forces, the Yin and Yang. The panda is one symbol of this philosophy with its contrasting black-and-white fur. The Chinese believe that the gentle nature of the panda demonstrates how the Yin and Yang bring peace and harmony when they are balanced.
The red panda and the giant panda share the same habitat and diet, and both animals are also endangered. However, scientific tests show that the red panda is in the raccoon family while the giant panda is in the bear family. Some scientists believe that the giant panda is so special that it should belong to its own family group.
According to legend, the panda was once an all-white bear. When a small girl tried to save a panda cub from being attacked by a leopard, the leopard killed the girl instead. Pandas came to her funeral wearing armbands of black ashes. As they wiped their eyes, hugged each other, and covered the ears, they smudged the black ashes.
A giant panda’s face is cute, but it is not chubby. It gets its shape from massive cheek muscles. In fact, a giant panda’s jaw and cheek muscles are so powerful that a panda can easily chew an aluminum dish into tiny pieces. They can also easily bite through a thick bamboo stalk. Humans have trouble cutting the same stalk with an ax.
External genitalia in bears doesn't develop until the bear is several months old. The best, and most reliable, way to determine a bear cub's sex is through DNA analysis. Scientists from the Smithsonian Conservation Biology Institute's Center for Conservation Genomics obtain the DNA from a gentle cheek swab during a cub’s veterinary exam.
Bamboo reaches its flowering cycle every 30-120 years. After bamboo flowers, the entire species of bamboo dies in a process called bamboo dieback. It can take up to 10-15 years for the bamboo to grow back. Pandas have usually been able to migrate to other areas, but they have lost so much of thier habitant to humans that migration has become increasingly difficult.a
The ancestor of the giant panda is the Ailurarctos (“cat bear”), which is an extinct genus of the Chinese panda that lived 8 million years ago. The skull of another ancestor, Ailuropoda microta, shows that it was half the size of a modern-day giant panda. Research shows that for the past 3 million years, giant pandas have evolved as a separate linage from other bears.
Giant panda cubs are usually born in August or September and are the size of a stick of butter. A cub has pink skin, a thin coat of white fur, a long tail, and no teeth. Its eyes are closed. By the end of the first month, the baby panda has all of its spots. Its eyes open around 4-6 weeks. A baby panda is almost 2 months old before it is the size of an average human newborn baby. A baby is almost 2 years old when it leaves its mother.
Scientists are unsure why the giant panda has the markings it has. Some biologists believe the panda’s colors are camouflage of light and dark to help the panda hide in the shadows in a bamboo forest. Other scientists believe the black and white markings help the panda keep a steady temperature, or that the colors help the giant panda avoid other pandas. Still other biologists believe that the panda’s large black eyespots make their eyes look bigger and their stare more aggressive.

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