~*MY FAT GIANT PANDA PAGE!!!!!!!!!!*~

Pandas2 by peterw!~

plz DONT edit/delete MY page. (= 

The Giant Panda

in chinese characters: 大熊貓  

(Ailuropoda melanoleuca) (^_^)

Also see these related pages:     Panda by AlexandriaW     Red pandas :X by RaymondL     Red Pandas by SharonY

intro

HI AND WELCOME TO PETERWS PAGE OF ... *drum roll* PANDAS!!!!!!!!!!

I did my page on pandas because I just did and I just felt like it. Please enjoy this interesting information and unique pictures (and other stuff and things)!

quick facts

*Location: Central-western and Southwestern China.

*It is easily recognized by its large, distinctive black patches around the eyes, over the ears, and across its round body.

*Though belonging to the order Carnivora, the Giant Panda has a diet which is 99% bamboo.

*The Giant Panda may eat other foods such as honey, eggs, fish, yams, shrub leaves, oranges, and bananas when available.

*The Giant Panda lives in a few mountain ranges in central China.

*It once lived in lowland areas, but farming, forest clearing, and other development now restrict the Giant Panda to the mountains.

*The Giant Panda is an endangered species and highly threatened.

*According to the latest report, China has 239 Giant Pandas in captivity and another 27 living outside the country.

*It also estimated that around 1,590 pandas are currently living in the wild.

*While the dragon has historically served as China's national emblem, in recent decades the Giant Panda has also served as an emblem for the country.

*Its image appears on a large number of modern Chinese commemorative silver, gold, and platinum coins.

*The species is a favorite of the public.

~source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Giant_Panda

the image gallery!

 <---bamboo flute! <---phew! i almost fell over this edge! <---kungfu panda! <---RED panda! <---ahh! get me out of these leaves! <---arent i so innocent looking... <--it lookz lyk a panda puffball! <---i know...itz so fat! <---stuffed pandas! <---mmm...diz iz som GOOOOD bamboo! <---*sigh*....depressed... <---ahh... water...

~source: http://images.google.com/images?hl=en&q=panda&gbv=2

other "ailuropoda" genus

•  Ailuropoda microta (Late Pilocene) ~ EXTINCT PYMY GIANT PANDA
• Ailuropoda wulingshanensis (late Pliocene - early Pleistocene) ~wuling mts.?
• Ailuropoda baconi (Pleistocene) ~?
• Ailuropoda minor (Pleistocene) ~EXTINCT DWARF PANDA
• Ailuropoda melanoleuca ~THE GIANT PANADA
  • Ailuropoda melanoleuca melanoleuca ~THE GIANT PANDA NOMINEE SUBSPECIES
  • Ailuropoda melanoleuca qinlingensis ~THE QINLING MTS. PANDA

~source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ailuropoda

the fabulous classification!

GIANT PANDA CLASSIFICATION.                             bamboo classification. <-- (^_^) yum...

Domain: Eukarya                                                                     domain- eukarya

Kindom: Animalia                                                                   kingdom- plantae

Phylum: Chordata                                                                   (unranked)- angiosperms

Class: Mammalia                                                                     (unranked)- monocots

Order: Carnivora                                                                     (unranked)- commelinids

Family: Ursidae                                                                        order- poales

Genus: Ailuropoda                                                                  family-poceae, subfamily- bambusoideae

Species: A. melanoleuca                                                       supertribe- bambusodae, tribe- BAMBUSEAE

image source

PANDA BASICS

Reproduction :P

Pandas reach sexual maturity between 4~8yrs, and lasts till 20. The mating seasons: March~May, where a female goes into her estrous cycle; only occurs once a year. A few males can compete for one female; the male with the highest rank gets the female. The female is crouching, head-down position as the male mounts her from behind and the male may mount her repeatedly to ensure successful fertilization. Baby pandas weigh only 3.2 to 4.6 ounces. They need the mother's undivided attention, so she is able to care for only one of her cubs. She usually abandons one of her cubs AND IT DIES :( Scientists do not know how the female chooses which cub to raise and the father has no part in helping raise the cub. <---HOW RUDE.!

Conservation :)

The Wolong National Nature Reserve was set up by China's government in 1958 to save the panda population and few advances in the conservation of pandas were made. Many believed that the best way to save the pandas was to cage them :( <---wow good idea...*sarcasm*. As a result, pandas suffered from terrible conditions. Because of pollution and destruction of their natural habitat, along with isolation from caging, reproduction of wild pandas was limited. In the 1990s, however, several laws helped pandas survive. With these efforts and improved conservation, wild pandas have started to increase in numbers in some areas, even though they still are classified as endangered.

Cubs o.o

A giant panda cub's only weighs about 150 grams. At birth, the giant panda is only about the size of a bar of butter and it is about 900 times smaller than their mother's weight. <---wow, so tiny.!

Human Interaction =O

The Giant Panda was first known to the West in 1869 by the French missionary Armand David, who received a skin from a hunter. The first westerner known to have seen a living Giant Panda is the German zoologist Hugo Weigold, who purchased a cub in 1916. Kermit and Theodore Roosevelt, Jr. became the first foreigners to shoot a panda <---so violent... In 1936, Ruth Harkness became the first Westerner to bring back a live Giant Panda, a cub named Su-Lin who went to live at the Brookfield Zoo in Chicago. These activities were halted in 1937 because of wars; for the next half of the century, the West knew little of pandas.

Diet :O

Despite its classification as a carnivore, the Giant Panda has a diet that is primarily herbivorous, which consists almost exclusively of bamboo. However, the Giant Panda still has the digestive system of a carnivore and can't digest cellulose efficiently, and has little nutrition from eating bamboo. The average Giant Panda eats as much as 20 to 30 pounds of bamboo shoots a day. It is important for it to keep its digestive tract full. The Giant Panda tends to limit its social interactions and avoids steeply sloping terrain in order to limit its energy expenditures. Giant Panda must have at least two different species of bamboo in its range to avoid starvation. The Giant Panda still has ursine teeth, and will eat meat, fish, and eggs when available. Zoos typically maintain the Giant Panda's bamboo diet, though some will provide specially formulated biscuits or other dietary supplements.

IN ZOOS =o

The economics of keeping pandas costs five times more than that of the next most expensive animal, an elephant. American zoos generally pay the Chinese government $1 million a year in fees, as part of a typical ten-year contract. 

Diplomacy =|

Panda Diplomacy is a term used to describe China's use of Giant Pandas as diplomatic gifts to other countries. This happened as far back as the Tang Dynasty, when Empress Wu Zetian sent a pair of pandas to the Japanese emperor.

~source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Giant_Panda 

THE THREATS!! :(

*Loss of Habitat

*Interruption of Migration Routs

*Low Rates of Reproduction

*Hunting

*Coversion of Forests

*Medicinal Herb Collection

*Bamboo Harvesting

*Poaching

*Large-scale Developement activities

*Predators

*Farming

*Tourism

*and more =( ... ... ...

 SAVE PANDAS...

~source: http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=threats+to+pandas&aq=f&oq=

~*INFO ON FAMOUS PANDAS*~ 

~source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Famous_giant_pandas 

more educational pictures... 

 <---panda branching diagram

  <--- brief and basic anatomy of a panda

<--- panda branching diagram

~source: http://images.google.com/images?gbv=2&hl=en&q=panda+cladogram&btnG=Search+Images

the RED panda...

A red panda is a type of panda but it is more related to a raccoon than a giant pianda. A red panda has has similar shape to the raccoon except a raccoon's black, gray, and white color is  replaced with the red panda's orange, dark red, brown, black, and white color. See RaymondL's or SharonY's page for more info.