Q: How do giant pandas adapt to environmental changes?
A: Giant pandas have adapted to the strategy of survival of the fittest. Their ancient body structure and organs of carnivores have undergone adaptive degradation to adapt to the objective conditions of the staple food bamboo.
Q: Are wild giant pandas vegetarians?
A: In terms of animal classification, giant pandas are classified as carnivores, but giant pandas can be said to be a typical idiosyncratic carnivore for its mainly vegetarian diet. In the wild environment, only about 1% of the giant panda's diet will include other plants and animals; in the human breeding environment, the giant panda can also eat honey, bird eggs, sweet potatoes, bush leaves, oranges, plums, bananas, etc.
Q: What is the panda's recipe like?
A: Giant pandas mainly eat bamboo and bamboo shoots, which account for about 99% of their total food. Only about 17% of them are absorbed. In the wild, giant pandas occasionally eat some other plants and animals, so the giant panda is an omnivorous animal whose main food is still bamboo. Giant pandas are very fond of water. Sometimes they even have difficulty walking due to drinking too much water. Their drinking habit also helps to their digestion of bamboo.
Q: How long do wild giant pandas spend eating bamboo every day?
A: According to research, giant pandas in the wild spend 10 to 14 hours a day eating bamboo.
Q: How much bamboo does a giant panda eat in a day?
A: Giant pandas live in cold plateau regions. In these places, the spring is usually from April to June, summer and autumn from July to October, and winter from November to March. In spring, giant pandas feed on fresh bamboo shoots, and their food intake is also the largest in this season. Generally, they feed 30- 60 kg themselves, with an average of about 40 kg. In summer, their food becomes mainly bamboo stems, but also include some older bamboo shoots and newly grown shoots and leaves. Autumn is the most lush time for young branches and leaves, which makes them the main recipes for pandas. At this time, the nutrients of young shoots and young leaves rank first among other parts of bamboo, and the crude fiber contained is lower than that of bamboo stems. Therefore, in autumn, giant pandas only need to eat 10-14 kg per day, and their range of activities is the lowest in a year, which also saves the energy consumed.
Q: Why do wild giant pandas eat a lot of bamboo?
A: Although giant pandas feed on bamboo, their digestive tract is typical of carnivores. The digestive tract is short, lacks mucous membranes, and has no cecum, so it cannot effectively digest cellulose and lignin in bamboo cell walls. Their digestion can only absorb cellular contents and part of hemicellulose. Therefore, giant pandas are different from other herbivores, which have a complex ruminant stomach or a large cecum, which can fully digest and absorb the vegetables these animals feed on. That's why, in order to meet nutritional needs, giant pandas spend a lot of time every day eating bamboo in large quantities.
Q: What kind of bamboo do pandas like to eat?
A: In addition to choosing the optimal composition of seasonal recipes, giant pandas also take optimal choices in feeding behavior. In the season best for eating bamboo shoots, they will choose the best according to the location. The giant panda group in each mountain system has a favorite type of bamboo. The giant pandas in the Qionglai Mountains prefer Bashania fangiana. It is thinner, and giant pandas do not eat its young shoots, but only eat old shoots in winter. In the Qinling Mountains, Bashania fargesii is the main food choice. These bamboo shoots are thicker. Giant pandas choose to eat such bamboo shoots with a diameter of more than 12 mm. In other mountain systems, giant pandas mainly eat Fargesia denudata, Fargesia robusta, Yushania niitakayamensis, etc. The diameters of the bamboo shoots of these species typically exceed 9 mm.
Q: What is the typical process of a giant panda eating bamboo?
A: When a giant panda eats bamboo, it will collect bamboo leaves into a handful, eat it in bites; when eating a bamboo pole, the giant panda will use its teeth to peel off the outer skin of the bamboo and eat the inner part. During different seasons, the types and parts of bamboo that giant pandas like to eat also vary.
