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Giant Pandas
The scientific name for Panda is "Ailuropoda melanoleauca".
The basic color of the panda is white with black eye patches, ears,
legs, feet, chest and
shoulders. The Panda fur is thick with coarse outer hairs
and extremely dense and woolly underfur that becomes
somewhat sparse on the belly. Cubs are as soft to the touch
as kittens.
Adult Pandas range between 5.25 and
6feet in length and may attain weights of well over 200 lbs.
Adult males usually weigh from 10 to 20 percent more than
females. The Chinese name for the giant panda is "xiongmao"
or "giant cat bear".
The food the Panda eats is Bamboo. It
eats up to 45 lbs. of this plant a day to
survive.
Pandas do not hibernate or roar. They
bleat instead.
Pandas will eat meat if given the
opportunity. They are too slow to catch most animals, but
they have been reported to eat fish, pika squirrels and
rodents. Giant pandas will also eat crocuses, irises, vines,
horsetails, firark and certian kinds of tufted
grass.
No one knows how long a giant panda
may live in the wild, but in captivity they have been known
to live thirty years.
The most common natural problems
bothering wild Pandas are roundworms, indigestion and lung
disease.
Panda s' home ranges are small,
varying from 1.5 to 2 .5 square miles, and are normally
shared with other Pandas.
The giant panda is an endangered
species with a bleak future. Only 700 or so still exist in
the wild.
Theresa
George
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Marshall
Cultural Atlas
