What is panda?

Description

The Panda has a very distinctive black-and-white coat. Adults measure around 1.5 m long and around 75 cm tall at the shoulder. Males can weigh up to 115 kg (253 pounds). Females are generally smaller than males, and can occasionally weigh up to 100 kg (220 pounds). Giant Pandas live in mountainous regions, such as Sichuan, Gansu, Shaanxi, and Tibet. While the Chinese dragon has been historically a national emblem for China, since the latter half of the 20th century the Panda has also become an informal national emblem for China. Its image appears on a large number of modern Chinese commemorative silver, gold, and platinum coins.

The Panda has an unusual paw, with a "thumb& quot; and five fingers; the "thumb& quot; is actually a modified sesamoid bone, which helps the panda to hold the bamboo while eating. Stephen Jay Gould wrote an essay about this, then used the title The Panda's Thumb for a book of essays concerned with evolution and intelligent design. The Giant Panda has a short tail, approximately 15 cm long. Giant Pandas can usually live to be 20-30 years old while living in captivity.

Behaviour

Until recently, scientists thought giant pandas spent most of their lives alone, with males and females meeting only during the breeding season. Recent studies paint a different picture, in which small groups of pandas share a large territory and sometimes meet outside the breeding season.[citation needed]

Like most subtropical mammals, but unlike most bears, the giant panda does not hibernate.

Diet
Pandas eating bamboo

Despite its taxonomic classification as a carnivore, the panda has a diet that is primarily herbivorous, which consists almost exclusively of bamboo. This is an evolutionarily recent adaptation. Pandas lack the proper enzymes to digest bamboo efficiently, and thus derive little energy and little protein from it.

While primarily herbivorous, the panda still retains decidedly ursine teeth, and will eat meat, fish, and eggs when available. In captivity, zoos typically maintain the pandas' bamboo diet, though some will provide specially formulated biscuits or other dietary supplements.

Name

The name "panda& quot; originates with a Himalayan language, possibly Nepalese. And as used in the West it was originally applied to the red panda, to which the giant panda was thought to be related. Until its relation to the red panda was discovered in 1901, the giant panda was known as Mottled Bear (Ailuropus melanoleucus) or Particolored Bear.

In Chinese, the giant panda is called the "large bear cat" (Simplified Chinese: 大熊猫; Traditional Chinese: 大熊貓; pinyin: Dàxióngmāo), just "bear cat", or "cat bear" (Simplified Chinese: 猫熊; Traditional Chinese: 貓熊; pinyin: Māoxióng), a term usually used only in Taiwan.

Most bears' eyes have round pupils. The exception is the giant panda, whose pupils are vertical slits like cats' eyes. These unusual eyes, combined with its ability to effortlessly scale trees,[11] are what inspired the Chinese to call the panda the "large bear cat".

參考資料:
http://en.wikipedia. org/wiki/Giant_Panda

熊貓ah!!!ha

Panda = 熊貓

熊貓是中國的國寶。

熊貓lor....

熊貓囉!!!