NL·0773Herbarium of the Nature Library
- Name
- Ailuropoda melanoleuca
- Family
- Ursidae
- Native to
- Mountains of Sichuan, Shaanxi and Gansu provinces, China
- Habitat
- Temperate montane forest, Bamboo forest
Giant panda
Ailuropoda melanoleuca
Also calledDàxióngmāo 大熊猫 (Mandarin) · Bei-shung, 'white bear' (older Chinese) · Panda géant (French)
A black-and-white bear of the cool bamboo forests of central China that lives almost entirely on bamboo, despite having the gut of a carnivore. Decades of reserve-building helped wild numbers recover to about 1,860 adults.
The giant panda, also known as the panda bear or simply panda, is a bear species endemic to China. It is characterised by its white coat with black patches around the eyes, ears, legs and shoulders. Its body is rotund; adult individuals weigh 100 to 115 kg and are typically 1.2 to 1.9 m long. It is sexually dimorphic, with males being typically 10–20% larger than females. A thumb is visible on its forepaw, which helps in holding bamboo in place for feeding. It has large molar teeth and expanded temporal fossae to meet its dietary requirements. It can digest starch and is mostly herbivorous with a diet consisting almost entirely of bamboo and bamboo shoots. Wikipedia
What it can do
- iGrips bamboo with a 'pseudo-thumb', an enlarged wrist bone that works like a sixth digit
- iiEats 12–38 kg of bamboo a day and spends 10–16 hours feeding
- iiiSurvives on a low-energy diet by keeping its metabolism unusually low for its size
- ivCrushes tough bamboo stems with massive jaw muscles and broad molars
In the field
Field marks
- aBear with bold black-and-white pattern
- bBlack eye patches, ears, legs and shoulder band
- cRound face with heavy cheek muscles
- dOften seen sitting and eating bamboo
- Voice
- Bleats, huffs, honks and barks
- Not to be confused with
- Unmistakable.
- Where to see it
- Wild pandas are very rarely seen; Chengdu Research Base of Giant Panda Breeding and Wolong reserve's centres in Sichuan
- When
- Resident
Listen
Looking for field recordings…
Life & habits
- Diet
- Herbivore in practice (~99% bamboo); occasionally carrion or small animals
- Habitat
- Temperate montane forests with dense bamboo understorey, 1,200–3,400 m
- Size
- 70–125 kg; 1.2–1.9 m long
- Lifespan
- ~20 years wild; 30+ in captivity
Newborns weigh 90–130 g, about 1/900th of their mother, among the smallest newborns relative to the mother of any placental mammal.
Where it lives
Recorded sightings
—
geo-referenced records in GBIF, from museums, herbaria and field observers.
Native range
Mountains of Sichuan, Shaanxi and Gansu provinces, China
Drag the globe to turn it. Dots are where records exist, not a range map; darker means more records.
In the stacks
Searching the stacks…
Every page naming Ailuropoda melanoleuca in the Biodiversity Heritage Library →
Marginalia
The French missionary-naturalist Armand David sent the first panda skin to Paris in 1869. Since the 1950s China has lent pandas to other nations as diplomatic gifts, a practice called 'panda diplomacy'.
Curiosity
IUCN downgraded the giant panda from Endangered to Vulnerable in 2016 as its wild population grew.
Kinship
Photographs: iNaturalist contributors under the licences shown. Records: GBIF.org. Historical plates: Source Library (CC BY-SA 4.0; originals public domain). Summary text: Nature Library editors and Wikipedia (CC BY-SA). Medicinal and edibility notes are historical and educational, not advice. iNaturalist taxon 41659.