Giant Panda Eating

Giant pandas live in remote mountain forests in central China. They live among the bamboo thickets.

Giant pandas feed on bamboo shoots and roots while in a sitting position. This frees their front feet to wrench off pieces of bamboo.

The giant panda can handle bamboo with great dexterity because of the extension of the seasamoid bone in the wrist. This bone projects as a padlike “false thumb” allowing it to flex and oppose the true thumb (first digit) to grip stems and leaves.

Ninety-nine percent of a panda’s diet is bamboo, new shoots in the spring, leaves in summer, and stems in winter. Giant pandas feed mainly at dawn and dusk and sleep in the bamboo thicket near their next meal

Bamboo is not particularly nutritious so giant pandas lead a leisurely lifestyle in order to conserve energy.

The giant panda is normally solitary. They measure 4 to 6 feet (1.2-1.8m) long and weight 155 to 280 pounds (70-125 kg).

There are about 150 pandas in captivity worldwide and about 10 times that number live in the wild. The giant panda is an endangered species, although its numbers due to captive breeding programs are slowly on the increase.