Giant panda (or a bamboo bear)
Have you ever seen a bear that is almost always eating? That's a big panda, and it loves to eat bamboo more than anything else! The big panda, or big bear, is one of the most famous animals in the world. It looks like a huge soft toy with black and white fur, so it's easy to recognise and everyone loves it. Scientists debated for a long time, to which animal to refer the panda: they thought that it is similar to both raccoons and bears, but finally agreed on the opinion that the panda is still a bear.
The panda has a very large head with a broad little nose, a short body and a long tail, which can be up to 12 cm long, like a school ruler. It is quite a large animal: its weight can be up to 130 kg (that's how much two large adult humans weigh, and if a panda could be put down and measured, it would be longer than the longest bed in the house - almost 2 metres. That's really amazing, isn't it?
The panda has powerful claws on its wide feet, and which help it climb trees. The panda has a special "toe" on its paw that allows it to easily handle even the smallest bamboo branches.
What a panda eats
The panda's teeth are specially designed to chew hard bamboo. The panda usually only eats bamboo, but sometimes it may snack on other plants as well as mushrooms, eggs, birds and rodents. The panda usually eats sitting down, holding a branch of bamboo with its special "finger" and two more fingers on its paw to peel off the hard bark and then chew slowly. The panda can eat young, juicy branches, old stems and even roots. They can eat for up to 12 hours a day and eat up to 18 kilos of bamboo at a time. That's like you would eat spaghetti for 12 hours a day!
What pandas can do
The big bamboo bear is very good at climbing trees, and it does it like a real acrobat: it can climb the tallest trees and even stop on the thinnest branches. And pandas also have a funny way of rolling upside down on steep slides when someone is chasing them. When they do this, they press their front paws against their eyes to protect them and their back paws against their belly.
How they grow
Pandas have very slow growing babies. They do not become adults until they are 6-7 years old. A panda gives birth to 1-2 (very rarely 3) babies. Pandas are born very small, weighing only 150g, which is a thousand times less than the weight of an adult animal! The babies' eyes only open after 3 weeks, and their mother feeds them milk for almost a whole year. Pandas are very caring mums, they are almost always near the babies and often play with them. What's next is even more interesting.
