Everybody loves the star of our new project, but just how much do you know about the Giant Panda? Today we will be bringing you our top 5 facts all about these gentle bears, so let’s dive in.
Pandas really love to eat
Everybody knows that pandas love to eat bamboo, but the sheer lack of nutritional value in this plant has made many scientists wonder why! There are around 20 different species of bamboo that pandas will eat, but bamboo is so nutritionally poor that the bears need to eat up to 20kg of it every day just to survive and this peckish process can take up to 16 hours each day! You need never feel guilty about eating too much again!
You don’t want to get bitten by one…
Even though their preferred food is bamboo, pandas are actually classified as carnivores and they have the largest molar teeth of any carnivores. Their lower jaw has an extra molar and both their molar and pre-molar teeth are adapted to slice and crush plant stems. As we mentioned above, you’re going to want to avoid putting your hands anywhere near a pandas mouth as those teeth can crunch through a bamboo stem that is up to 4cm thick!
Baby pandas are small….very small
These bears can grow to weigh anywhere up to 100 kilo’s, but they begin life at the other end of the size scale. When born, baby pandas only weigh around 140 grams, and they are unable to even crawl until they are 3 months old. These adorable babies are born white and develop their colour later in life, and at birth can fit in a teacup.
Pandas have seven toes on their paws!
Pandas have a 6th and 7th digit on their paws, and both of these serve a purpose. The sixth digit is an extra thumb, and the seventh is called a pisiform. The pisiform is a “fake” digit with no claws, and this helps the bears to grip bamboo and eat a lot of it at once which comes in very handy when you need to get through 20kg of it!
Nobody knows why they have their distinctive coats
The panda is one of the most distinctive animals in the world, but scientists are still unsure as to why their coats are that unique white and black colour. Some believe that it is a form of camouflage to help the pandas hide in the shadows of the bamboo forests, whilst others think that the colours help the panda to regulate its body temperature. Other biologists believe that the panda’s large black patches around its eyes are there to make the bear’s eyes look bigger and their stare more aggressive. To make a long story short, nobody really knows why the bears look like they do but they are definitely cute enough to pull off the look!
These fascinating facts give you a taster of just how captivating these amazing animals are. However, these are only some of the interesting things we know about the bears, so if you have a panda fact you think beats ours then let us know in the comments below.
