giant panda, bamboo or Tibetan mountain bear - all names for the same poorly known and endangered animals.Due to its thick and fluffy white coat with black stripes, this species is easily recognizable.Black "points" around the eyes, large ears of the same color, good-natured fun muzzle, the ability to exactly sit like a man, rocking a baby in panda paws made a favorite of children in all zoos.However, the area of its habitat is extremely narrow, and in the wild, these animals are so secretive way of life that scientists have not completely figured out their habits.Thus, until recently, it was not even clear to what family owned giant pandas - the bears, raccoons, or form a separate group.
Outwardly, this funny animal is more like a bear.Chinese peasants were right when called the beast Shuang bei (literally: the polar bear).However, researchers have believed for a long time is the size of a raccoon being unreasonable, because the panda is a large general anatomical features with small, which implicitly considered as such.However, all the signs comparing and studying the genome of pandas, modern scientists still verdict: bamboo bear - still bear!In the early Miocene, that is 18-25 mln. Years ago, a branch of the giant panda as a result of evolution separated from the main line of bears.A resemblance to the raccoon is not explained by a common origin and preservation of certain features in the same natural conditions.
Where is usual and what to eat panda?This rare animal lives only in mountainous (1200-4000 meters above sea level), the forests of several Chinese provinces - Gansu, Tibet and Sichuan.Is the ancient remains of the animal in the mountains of Indochina and the island of Borneo.This bear in the course of evolution almost entirely switched to a vegetarian diet: 99% of edible food falls on the panda bamboo shoots.According to an old habit, it does not bear averse to eat honey, fish, roots, and even does not disdain carrion.
Yet all this great panda prefers bamboo.It is so firmly tied to the bamboo forests that it has become its curse.The fact that bamboo grows rapidly growing in the grove, but then, after 40-50 years, blooms and dies very quickly, and the next young shoots will appear only after 3-4 years.Previously, these animals move on to new territory, but now, when forests are separated by fields, roads and settlement areas, they are doomed to starvation.After all, if these animals eat monotonous food that is absorbed and then only by 17%, they must save energy.Panda prefers to lead a sedentary lifestyle, and those 14 hours, when it is awake, should always something to chew on.
Giant Panda - actually a small bear.Its height is about one meter and 65 centimeters, weight - about 100 kilograms.Females are slightly smaller than males.The tail is larger than those of other bears - 12 cm. In the wild, this rare species lives 14-20 years, and in zoos, with constant care and veterinary care - up to 26 years.Pandas make sounds, unlike the roar of a predator.To express friendship, they have little bleat like lambs;with stimulation of the beast and the Mount buzzing;animals scream in pain, "slurp" when they want to express a threat, and "tweet" during mating.Bears whimper and whine.
Big panda gives birth to two cubs (rarely one or three).Soon, however, she chooses a larger, healthy baby and mother rejected - dies.To prevent the destruction of the already rare animal, zoo scientists take one calf, and then change it in a day.Thus, they are able to fool a mother and two cubs grow immediately.This animal is listed in the International Red Book, and in China it is declared a national treasure of the country.Now nature is not live more than a thousand, a maximum of up to 1,600 giant pandas.Another 140 animals live in zoos.
