Giant panda (scientific name: Ailuropoda melanoleuca): The only mammal belonging to the order Carnivora, Ursidae, subfamily Giant Panda and the genus Giant Panda, with a head and body length of 1.2-1.8 meters and a tail length of 10-12 cm. . It weighs 80-120 kilograms and can reach up to 180 kilograms. Its body color is black and white. It has round cheeks, big dark circles under the eyes, a chubby body, the iconic pigeon-toed walking style, and a scalpel. Sharp claws. It is one of the cutest animals in the world.
The giant panda has lived on the earth for at least 8 million years. It is known as a "living fossil" and "China's national treasure". It is the image ambassador of the World Wildlife Fund and the flagship species for the world's biodiversity conservation. According to the fourth national giant panda wild population survey, there are 1,864 wild giant pandas in China, which are classified as first-level protected animals in China.
Giant pandas originally ate meat. After evolution, 99% of their food is bamboo. However, their teeth and digestive tract remain the same, and they are still classified as carnivorous. When angry, they are as dangerous as other bears. kind. The life span of giant pandas in the wild is 18-20 years, and they can exceed 30 years in captivity. As of November 2019, the global captive giant panda population reached 600.
Giant pandas are endemic to China and their main existing habitats are the mountainous areas of Sichuan, Shaanxi and Gansu in China.
Extended information
The ancestor of the giant panda is Ailuaractos lufengensis. The standard Chinese name of the giant panda is actually "Cat Bear", which means "cat-like bear". This is the earliest panda that evolved from ursids and mainly eats carnivores. The main branch of pandas continued to evolve in central and southern China, and one of them appeared in the early Pleistocene about 3 million years ago.
It is smaller than the panda. Judging from its teeth, it has evolved into an omnivore that eats both bamboo and oviparous bears. Since then, this main branch has expanded to the subtropics and is widely distributed in North China, Northwest China, East China, and Southwest China. Fossils have been found in , southern China and even northern Vietnam and Myanmar.
During this process, giant pandas adapted to life in subtropical bamboo forests, gradually increasing in size and relying on bamboo for survival. The middle and late Pleistocene, 500,000 to 700,000 years ago, was the heyday of the giant panda. Giant pandas in life have well-developed molars, and their claws have a "thumb" in addition to five toes. This "thumb" is actually a specialized carpal bone, its scientific name is "radial sesamoid bone", and it mainly plays the role of holding bamboo.