Do you know which animal is the least racist mentioned in the title? It is panda, because it’s black, it’s white, it’s Asian in one animal. LOL. Yes, in this article we are going to talk about the loveliest, the fluffiest, the most adorable, the most wiggle-wiggle, and the funniest animal in the world, Panda.

There are so many things to talk about the black and white Asian animal. Don’t you know that actually panda is not a Kung-Fu master, nor a dragon warrior?  Well, if you believe that giant panda is a Kung-Fu masters and dragon warrior, maybe you have watched too much of a movie.

That’s only a fictional story and none of those are facts. This endangered animal with population around 1000 left, which got endangered by poaching and habitat loss, is so unique. So, to know this cute animal better, we give you some facts about panda derived from Fact Retreiver.

The Origin Of Panda

As we know, panda, which scientific name is Ailuropoda melanoleuca, is a native Chinese bear. Originally, panda have lived on earth for about two to three million years. They came from an ancestor called Ailurarctos or cat bear that lived on earth about eight million years ago.

For a long time, panda has been a symbol of peace in China. Some story stated that a flag with a picture of panda is a symbol of truce between tribes who was in a war with each other. However, before the 20^th century, the existence of panda hasn’t been known to the rest of the world.

Not only that, Chinese philosophers also believe that panda is the animal symbol of yin and yang. This is because of the color of its skin that resembles black and white, like the color of yin and yang’s symbol, and also the gentle nature of the animal.

In the country of China, panda is treated as a national treasure. Thus, every single giant panda ever born to earth is the property of China. Even pandas that you find in the zoo, basically they belong to the country of China. People’s Republic of China loan them for up to 1 million dollars per year.

They Are Not Lazy, They Just Live In Peaceful Life

 

Keeping a panda, especially outside china, is very expensive. Not only because we have to pay the loan to china, but also because of the nature of panda. The price to keep a single panda in a zoo is five times more expensive than keeping an elephant.

99% of panda’s diet consists of bamboo, however actually panda is an omnivore which is more designed to eat meat. That’s why, only about 20% to 30% of nutrition in bamboo can be absorbed by the six-fingered animal.

Thus, to compensate the lack of nutrition they get from bamboo, they eat all the time they are awake. And that’s not a cheap business to feed panda 14 to 16 hours a day, even though they mostly eat bamboo. They need to eat to fulfill the need of nutrients from bamboo to survive.

An adult giant panda can eat about 20 to 30 pounds of bamboo each day. However, in spring they usually feast on more than 100 pounds of bamboo in one day. However, most of the bamboo is not digested, in spring they can produce up to 62 pounds of droppings every day.

Actually, beside the digestive system, panda has developed some physical features just for the sake of eating bamboo. Their throats are covered with a special lining which protects them from bamboo splinters, and they developed additional finger just to give them better grip of the bamboo.

Panda Make Peace, Not War

 

In addition to the massive amount of food they need, panda is a huge territorial animal. One giant panda need about 2.5 to 4 square miles of land. In the other hand, a pair of breeding panda need about 11 miles square of land. That’s a big area of land needed to breed them, and of course it is not cheap.

However, every time a new panda enters a territory of other panda, it will just get out of the territory. They don’t like to fight for food and territory because they don’t like to spend so much energy. So, it is so rare to see more than one panda in an area in the wild.

It is so possessive about their territory, even after a pair of panda mate, the female will chase the male out of her territory. The female pandas then will raise the kid by herself since the 97 to 163 days gestation period until the cub is three years old.

Most of the cubs are born between August and September and one panda usually only carry one cub at a time. The cub itself is considered adult in different ages, the female ones are considered adult when she reaches five years old. While it takes seven years for a male panda to reach adult stage.

A silly story about panda is, more than a half of panda cub die because of two reasons. The first is because of disease, and the second is because accidentally getting stomped over by their mother. This is because of the size of the cub, compared to its mother is 1 to 900.

They Need Protection

 

As stated before, there are only around 1000 giant pandas left on the earth. That’s why, nowadays, the government of China breed them in captivity with the hope to be able to raise its population. They hope raising pandas in safer environment can increase the population of this animal.

Apparently, living in captivity can raise the life span of pandas. Currently, there are about 240 captive pandas in the world and they are part of breeding programs. The breeding project has started long time ago, even the first born in captivity was born in 1963.

Being in captivity apparently gives high hope to the sustainability of giant panda in the world. While usually wild pandas can reach 20 years, in captivity the life span of pandas can reach up to 25 to 30 years. In addition, mother panda give birth to twins more often in captivity.

There is only one species of panda in the world, and once it is gone, it is gone forever. And once it’s gone, the earth will lose one of its fluffiest and cutest animal ever. Here we give you a video about panda, and think again, do they deserve the extinction threat?