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Giant Pandas Panda Ecology The giant panda (Ailuropoda melaleuca) was once widespread in southern and eastern China and in neighbouring Myanmar and north Vietnam. Today, however, there are only around 1, 000 left, and all of these are found in one geographic region the bamboo forests of southwestern China. The panda has the digestive system of a carnivore. Long ago, however, it adapted to a vegetarian diet and now feeds almost exclusively on the stems and leaves of bamboo.
Hidden in the dense foliage of the forest, the panda eats for up to 14 hours a day, consuming 12 to 14 kg of bamboo. Black and white and bear like, the panda roams in a well defined home range of between 3. 9 and 12 km 2. Until recently, much of what we knew about pandas came from research at the Wrong Nature Reserve in Sichuan. Studies here showed that the panda lived a solitary existence, meeting only occasionally with other pandas, except during the very brief mating season in late spring or early summer when several males come together and compete for a female. A female is on heat for two to three days.
New research from Shaanxi Provinces Qinling Mountains now presents a different scenario. Far from living alone, it claims, pandas in Qinling live and travel in groups of at least two, and sometimes in groups of up to 28. Unlike some other bears, the panda does not hibernate. Its cubs are fairly small at birth, weighing only 90 to 130 gm, but, fully grown, it can weigh 100 kg and over.
New born cubs have little fur and are very delicate. Infant mortality is also high. The average life span is 18 to 20 years in the wild, and up to 30 years in captivity. Threats Destruction of the pandas natural habitat is now a major threat to the survival of the species. In the eleven years from 1973 to 1984, suitable habitat for the animal shrunk by 50 per cent in six isolated, but previously ideal, areas. On top of that, theres the problem of bamboo flowering.
At regular intervals (ranging from 10 to 100 years depending on the species), bamboo plants flower over large areas and die. Although they regenerate from seed within a year, it can take up to 20 years before the bamboo can support a panda population again. When the bamboo in one area flowers, pandas have to move to other areas where this has not happened. Historically, this was easy, but as the human population expanded, more forests have been cleared for agricultural purposes, or for the collection of fuelwood and timber. At the same time, more human settlements and roads have been built.
Together, they make panda migration much more difficult, leaving pandas restricted to islands of forest. Some pandas are still hunted for their skins. When a single pelt can fetch up to US$ 200, 000 in Japan, a few poachers are still prepared to risk the consequences the death penalty. More frequently, however, pandas are caught in snares set for other animals, such as musk deer.
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Research essay sample on 20 Years Panda Pandas
