 Kingdom: Animalia
 Phylum: Chordata
 Class: Mammalia
 Scientific Name: Ailuropoda melanoleuca
 Common Name: Giant Panda

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Giant Pandas show the evolutionary advantage of having hair and mammal glands. Mammals were the 1 st animals on earth to show these traits.
Symmetry: Bilateral
Body cavity: Coelomate – all mammals have a full digestive system
(tube within a tube)
Type of organism:
 Free living
 omnivore
 terrestrial
Giant Pandas all show cephalization with three body regions (head, thorax, and abdomen)

 Average Lifespan (wild)
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20 years average
 Average lifespan (captivity)

Up to 35 years
 small groups of pandas share a large territory and sometimes meet outside the breeding season. They are mostly solitary within group also
 Breeding Interval
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Females are capable of breeding annually. (usually only breed every other year though)
 Breeding Season
 spring
 Number of Offspring
 2
 Gestation Period
 95 to 160 days
 Birth Mass

3 to 5 ounces
 1/900th the size of its mother
 Time to Weaning
 8 to 9 months
 Age at Sexual or
Reproductive Maturity
 4 to 8 years of age

 Habitat
 Giant Pandas live in a few mountain ranges in central
China: in Sichuan, Shaanxi, and
Gansu provinces
 The Pandas live in broadleaf and coniferous forests with a dense under story of bamboo,
 at elevations between 5,000 and
10,000 feet.
 Torrential rains or dense mist throughout the year characterizes these forests, often shrouded in heavy clouds
 Niche/Food Habits
 A wild Giant Panda’s diet is almost exclusively (99%) bamboo.
 May eat other grasses and occasional small rodents or musk deer fawns.

 Giant Pandas are about the size of a stick of butter when born
 They are able to grasp bamboo stems with the help of a "pseudo thumb," formed by an elongated and enlarged wrist bone covered with a fleshy pad of skin

 The Giant Panda is listed as endangered. There are about
1,600 left in the wild.
 Nearly 300 Pandas live in zoos and breeding centers around the world, mostly in China.
 The WWF is currently working with the Chinese government:
 to create reserves for the
Pandas
 making it easier for humans and
Pandas to coexist

 Giant Pandas are the only bears that do not hibernate during the winter.
 When Pandas mark there territories they do a hand stand and whoever marks the highest wins.
 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FZjlVUG_APs

 http://nationalzoo.si.edu/Animals/GiantPandas/PandaFacts/default.cfm
 http://animals.nationalgeographic.com/animals/mammals/giant-panda/
 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FZjlVUG_APs
 http://wwf.panda.org/what_we_do/endangered_species/giant_panda/