Here's My Report!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! 

Delaney

2/20/09

4^th hour

Panda Report

There are many amazing animals in the world! My favorite animal is the panda. Pandas are very interesting animals. Did you know that they were once thought to have medical uses? Pandas also show interesting behaviors, and they live in very few places on earth because they are endangered.

Pandas have been classified as true bears and a part of the Ursidae family. The panda’s closest ursine relative is the spectacled bear that lives in South America.

There are two different kinds of pandas. One of them is the Giant Panda, which has been referred to as a “Living fossil”. The second one is the Red Panda. The red panda and the giant panda are completely different in looks but share a lot of the same features. Some of those features are they both live in the same habitat; they both live on a similar diet, and both share an enlarged bone called the “Pseudo Thumb”.

The Red panda is also called the firefox, firecat, lesser panda, or Ailuras Fulgens (“Shining Cat”). The red Panda mostly eats vegetables especially bamboo, it is usually called the lesser panda of Japan. Japan once had a boom in their zoos due to a red panda named Kata who resided in Tokyo Chiba Zoo. He made the headline because of his capacity standing up. The Red panda lives in the Himalayas in Bhuta, Southern China, Pakistan, India, Laos, Nepal, and Burma. It is the mascot of the Darjeeling international festivals.

There are two subspecies of the panda.  The first is called “Ailuropoda Melanoleuca Melanoleuca” (the Giant panda). These animals are found in Sichuan and show the typical stark black and white colors. The second is called “Ailuropoda Melanoleuca Ainlingensis”. It lives in the Qinling Mountains in Shaanxi at 1300-3000m elevations. They are dark brown versus the light brown pattern. It is smaller than other pandas and has larger molars.

There is no conclusive source for the word panda. But the closest to it originates in Nepali the word “Ponya”; the western world originally gave this name to the Red Panda. The Chinese language has given 20 different names to the panda.

A panda’s diet is very unusual.  A panda’s diet is mostly herbivorous and they have a low diet in nutrition. Pandas in the wild eat 25 different kinds of bamboo. Pandas eat 9 to 14 Kg. of bamboo everyday.

A panda’s appearance is simple; it has black and white fur. It has black fur on its ears, eye patches, muzzle, legs and shoulders. The rest of its body is white. A panda’s body shape is typical of bears. The adults measure about 4 to 6 feet long and about 2-3 feet tall. The males are about 10-20% larger than females. The males can weigh up to 250 pounds in the wild and females can weigh up to 220 pounds.

A panda’s life cycle is very unique. When pandas are born they only weigh 0 pounds, 4 oz. The baby’s eyes open about 40 days after they are born. When the baby is 3 months old they are black, white, and furry. They start crawling at 3-4 months. When they are 7 months old they start to climb trees, run, they start to eat bamboo, and they weigh 9 Kg. At 18 months pandas weigh 55 Kg. and will leave its mom soon.

Panda’s live in very few places in the world. At first the panda territory included south and east china and parts of Myanmar and Northern Vietnam. Today panda’s live in isolated forest areas in Sichuan, Gansu, and Shaanxi provinces in China. They live in high mountainous areas that have natural forested areas with fir, spruce, and bamboo trees.

Panda’s show interesting behaviors, like they usually live alone in bamboo forests. They mostly spend their life roaming and feeding on the bamboo trees. They communicate through vocalization and scent marking. Panda’s are mainly ground dwellers, using caves, hollow trees, or rock crevices for shelter.

Panda’s have very interesting mating habits. Once in captivity, panda’s lose their interest in mating. The mating season takes place between March- May and 1-2 cubs are born each year.

Panda’s are very rare today and are protected by many laws. Some panda’s are in zoos so scientists can study them and find a way to safe the pandas. The first panda was exhibited in 1963, in a zoo outside of China. All the panda’s in zoos have double names because of Chinese customs. There is only 700-1000 panda’s left in the world today.

Panda’s are endangered species because they were threatened by habitat loss and by low birthrate. People have tried to conserve them by passing laws and much more. The population of panda’s boom in China after 1949 created stress on the pandas’ habitat and subsequent famines led to the increase in hunting of wildlife, including panda’s. Then during the Central Revolution all studies and conservation activities stopped. In 1958 the Wolong National Nature Reserve was made to safe the panda’s, but made small progress. In the 1990’s, many laws helped the chance for the panda’s survival.

Pandas were thought to have medical uses and were thought to be rare and noble creatures. That’s why the mother of “Emperor Wen of Han” was buried with a panda skull in her casket. The panda was first made known to the west by the French missionary Armand David in 1869. The hunting of pandas was stopped in 1937 because of the wars.

As you can see pandas are wonderful animals! And I hope that they won’t become extinct!

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My Sources

“Endangerment” Kristyn MacLeod, Nick MacLeod, Skyler Millar, Dane Patkai, and Kyle Richards c2009

  http://www.edu.pe.ca/southernkings/panda.htm

“Giant Pandas” Kidcyber 2009 Kid cyber Feb. 20,2009 http://www.kidcyber.com.au/topics/panda.htm

“Giant Pandas” National Zoological Park 2009 National Zoological Park Feb 20, 2009

 http://nationalzoo.si.edu/Animals/GiantPandas/PandaFacts/default.cfm

“Panda facts” Pandas 2001 slack.net Feb. 21,2009

   http://www.slack.net/~rd/wanglang/panda_facts.htm

    “Pandas” Encyclopedia Britannica c2009

    “Pandas” Wikipedia 2009 Wikipedia Feb. 18, 2009 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Giant_Panda

   “Red pandas” Wikipedia 2009 Wikipedia Feb. 19, 2009

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red_Panda