Giant Pandas: Why Bamboo? And Sex Habits

Let's start this blog off with an all time favorite. The giant panda. Beautiful creatures. The strange thing about giant pandas though is this: they're herbivore carnivores. They're in the carnivore family but they aren't carnivores. They only eat bamboo. I shouldn't say only. They eat 99 percent bamboo. The other one percent of their diet consists of honey, yams and eggs. Another strange fact: the panda's digestive system can not properly break up plant material. Why is that their sole diet then? I haven't a clue.

Pandas are very shy animals so it's very hard to study their habits in the wild. Giant pandas are physically able to start producing offspring by the time they're six and a half MONTHS old! This before they're even weaned from drinking mama's milk. That happens at 9 months. Then mommy gets pregnant again when baby is 18 months and baby goes off on it's own into the world. Like a lot of animals male pandas will fight over a single female panda. (I guess that's true for us humans too, huh?) They mate in the spring. Ah, the season of love. Pregnancy lasts 97 to 163 days. Is it it just me or is that a somewhat large span. It gets to the 97th day and it's like oh, it could happen today OR it could happen 75 DAYS FROM NOW! That's over two months! Unfortunately most cubs born in captivity don't make it past 6 months old. However, if they do survive pandas in captivity can live for 30 years in comparison to only 15 or 20 in the wild.

That's all for today. Coming up next: A World Without Pandas? How Can We Help?

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For more information on pandas check out this article: Endangered Species: Giant Panda or this book by John Seidensticker and Susan Lumpkin: Giant Pandas
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