Chinese Giant Panda

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Giant Panda Diet: Despite it being classified as a carnivore the Giant Panda’s diet is mostly herbivorous. Eating mostly bamboo the Giant Panda gets little energy and protein it has minimum energy and tends to limit social interaction. Pandas eat 9-14kg of bamboo shoots a day and any of 25 bamboo species in the wild but to avoid starvation the Giant Panda has to have at least 2 different species available. The stalks of the bamboo have the least amount of nutrition and the leaves have the most. Although being mostly herbivorous the Giant Panda will eat meat, fish and eggs when available. Behavior: In the wild, the Giant Panda is a terrestrial animal and mainly spends its life wandering around the forest and feeding in the Bamboo forests of the Qinling Mountains. They are generally solitary creatures and each adult has its own territory. The Pandas communicate through vocalization and scent marking like clawing trees or spraying urine. The Giant Panda climbs hollow trees to make shelter or retreat in rock crevices, but does not establish permanent dens. Because of this the Pandas do not hibernate, and will instead move to warmer temperatures. Social encounters only occur during mating season and after mating the male Panda will leave the female alone to raise the cub. Conservation: The Giant Panda is an endangered species threatened by its ongoing loss of habitat and low birthrate. The Giant Panda has been of target for poaching since ancient times, they were a source of soft furs. Many people believed that the best way to protect the pandas was to cage them. As a result of this the pandas suffered from terrible conditions. Due to pollution and destruction of their natural habitat and segregation from caging the reproduction of Giant Pandas was severely limited. However in the 1990s several laws were made to help the chances of the Giant Pandas survival. With

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