The black and white juvenile pandas roll around in the zoo keeper’s hands; all the visitors gaze in wonder at the infant pandas. But there’s more to their creatures than meets the eye. Behind all those balls of fluff is a critically endangered species. Their lives are threatened by hunters, and poachers, and even animal abusers. There are many endangered animals on Earth, but one of the most threatened species is the Giant Panda. 

Daily life

A day in the life of a panda starts with eating stalks, leaves, and stems of a thick bamboo forest. Although Giant pandas eat tons of bamboo, like an herbivore, they actually have a carnivore-like digestive system. So the pandas have to eat 20-40 lbs of bamboo a day to make up for the low nutrition value. They have to spend ⅔ of their day eating and at least 4 hours of sleep. That's a lot of eating! Did you know that 90-98% of a panda's diet is made up of bamboo? Well, bamboo also has lots of water inside of the hollow stem, so it gives the panda fluids as well as nutrients.

But pandas don’t just eat bamboo, they also can eat cereals, milk, garden fruits, vegetables, small rodents, eggs, and fish, but they do so rarely, so they can’t live outside bamboo forests. Now you're probably wondering, “How do they grab all of this food?” Well, you're in luck because we are going to tell you exactly that. Giant Pandas have a special elongated wrist bone that acts sort of like a thumb. This makes pandas be able to grab the food.  Furthermore, pandas droppings weigh about the same as 4 bowling balls! Imagine having to pick that up after each feeding session. But when you think about it, it kinda makes sense, they do excrete 100 times per day. Plus, they even defecate in their sleep. They’re known to have 11-25 droppings laid in just 2 hours. 

Problems For Pandas

The Giant panda lives in the misty mountains of Central China. The 10,000 foot tall bamboo forest surrounds them, but they haven’t been here forever. In fact, they used to live in the lowlands of China. Pandas are mostly solitary, but most live in small groups that share a territory. Each panda’s territory is about 4-6 kilometers, and they don’t like pandas who are in different groups. 

Although adult pandas are rather large, they produce the smallest offspring of any mammal. One baby panda is 1/1000 of the size of its mother and weighs about 5 ounces. The newborn panda is blind for at least 45 days and needs a lot of help from its mother. One reason the pandas’ numbers are declining is that the newborn pandas have problems defecating. Defecating means excreting waste. Another reason that pandas’ offspring have less of a chance for making it to adulthood is that adult pandas have limited days to produce. They can only produce newborn pandas once a year, and in that time only 2-3 days can they become pregnant. Most female pandas can only successfully raise about 5-8 cubs in a lifetime. Only female pandas who are 4-8 years old can produce panda cubs, and at 20 years they can no longer produce. “I don’t know how many years I will spend trying to complete this second mission, but I won’t give up until it’s done,” remarked Papa Panda, an animal keeper trying to fix the natural problems of pandas.

Threatened by Humans

There are lots of reasons why pandas are going extinct,and most of them are caused mainly by humans. Some of these include humans destroying or damaging habitats for farming and tourism, overhunting, poaching, fishing, introducing invasive species, polluting, continuing the exotic pet trade, and contributing to climate change. Because of these threats, pandas were forced into living in the mountains on the eastern edge of Tibet in the provinces of Szechwan, Shaanxi, Shensi, and Kansu, which in total is 5,000 square miles. Pandas started dying off because there is not as much bamboo as they needed in the mountain, which is causing starvation to many panda groups.

Right now in the world, there are about 1,864 pandas left in the wild that are trying to survive. Humans cut down bamboo forests, which takes 5-10 years to recover. Some pandas rely on a type of bamboo that only blooms at a certain time. Now, thanks to humans these pandas can’t eat during that period when it grows. In the next 80 years, climate change will kill 35% of the pandas’ habitats. “Climate change eliminates 1/3 of the bamboo forest that pandas rely on,” said Angeli Gabriel, a panda interviewer at National Geographic.

Zoos and Shelters Doing Their Part

Su-Lin, a small baby panda, was one of the many Giant Pandas exhibited in the west of China. She soon reached the U.S in 1936 as a popular attraction at the Brookfield Zoo, until her death in 1938. Su-Lin’s life as a panda didn't last very long because zoos aren't doing all that they can to help these animals.

But, people are now trying to bring pandas back. Pandas can live to about 30 years in captivity and about 20 years in the wild. Looks like they can live 10 years longer in captivity! Now there are 120 pandas in captivity with population numbers increasing. In 1990 China expanded its efforts to bring back and help the Giant Panda. They went from 14 sites to 40, and the pandas moved up on the IUCN meter to be vulnerable from endangered in 2016. That’s an increase of 17% pandas over the last decade! “They are a critically endangered species, but with the collaboration of what we’ve been doing, working with China, we’re bringing the numbers back,” stated Juan Rodriguez, an Animal Keeper at the Giant Pandas Smithsonian’s National Zoo.

How we can help

These zoos and shelters are doing a pretty decent job of protecting the giant panda, but we’re not animal keepers, so how can we help them? Well, first you need to be aware of these endangered species, so you can help them, which you already finished by reading this article. But you also can’t just sit around after you know what’s happening to them. You also have to do something about it. One thing we can do is donate to a charity. Donating $19 is enough money to buy films for an infrared camera. $56 can send a ranger on a training course, and $1,392 will save an injured panda. You can do this on the World Wildlife Fund! 

You can also sponsor a panda. When you give money to a certain panda you can get things back like a stuffed animal panda, a birth certificate of the panda, pictures, and more. Another way to help pandas without giving money is to use less paper. Pandas rely on bamboo for most of their food source, and the main reason why people are cutting down bamboo forests is that they need to make paper. When you do use that paper, remember to recycle it and choose recycled paper products. Greenhouse gasses also affect pandas and their environment also. If you walk, bike, use video conferences, carpool, and choose high-efficiency rated airplanes, you are already helping pandas and other endangered species. Other ways you can help are turning off lights when you leave a room and hanging up freshly washed clothes to dry, instead of putting them in a dryer.

"Humans share the earth for a short life span. Many people do not think about endangered life forms. Our awareness of the challenges they face in existing every day must be addressed if these life forms are going to continue to exist." - Harry, California

Other facts about giant pandas

• They can stand on hind legs, summersault, and love to roll around in the dust

• Pandas are capable of swimming and love climbing

• Pandas don’t use visual signals like a mane, flexible ears, and swishing tails

• They make lots of vocal sounds when mating or playing

• Pandas don’t roar like other bears

• They rely on their sense of smell, this is called olfaction

• Their fur helps them blend in with their habitat. White for snowy backgrounds, and black for shady forests

• They are the size of an American Black Bear

Works Cited