Pandas

Day 2 of the tour and we were excited as we were going to xiong mao (pandas).

The life span of giant pandas in the wild is approximately 20 years. Captive pandas may live even longer.

The eyespots of a giant panda cub are initially in the shape of a circle. As the cub grows, the circles become shaped like a teardrop.

Giant pandas are on the brink of extinction, with just over 1,000 pandas left in the world. Scientists are hoping to increase the wild panda population to 5,000 by 2025.

The giant panda has been an endangered species list since 1990. The most significant threats to pandas are habitat loss and poaching. 

Pandas have been a symbol of peace in China. For example, hundreds of years ago, warring tribes in China would raise a flag with a picture of a panda on it to stop a battle or call a truce. Today panda diplomacy still exists. China loans its pandas out to other nations as a symbol of friendship and peace.

Pandas evolved between 2-3 million years ago

According to legend, the panda was once an all-white bear. When a small girl tried to save a panda cub from being attacked by a leopard, the leopard killed the girl instead. Pandas came to her funeral wearing armbands of black ashes. As they wiped their eyes, hugged each other, and covered the ears, they smudged the black ashes.

Pandas can stand upright, but their short hind legs aren’t strong enough to support their bodies. A panda’s bones are twice as heavy as the bones of other animals the same size.

Pandas are pigeon-toed; in other words, they walk with their front paws turned inward.

 A baby panda lives with its mother between 18 months to 2 years

Female pandas ovulate only once a year. They are fertile only two or three days of the year. Apparently pandas in captivity lost their natural ability to mate. The Singapore zoo had to "show" a live panda mating session captured on TV to their panda pair in order to "educate" them on mating!

Giant panda cubs are usually born in August or September and are the size of a stick of butter. A cub has pink skin, a thin coat of white fur, a long tail, and no teeth. Its eyes are closed. By the end of the first month, the baby panda has all of its spots. Its eyes open around 4-6 weeks. A baby panda is almost 2 months old before it is the size of an average human newborn baby.

Mother pandas in captivity give birth to twins more often than mothers in the wild do.

The panda’s round head is due to powerful jaw muscles

A giant panda’s face is cute, but it is not chubby. It gets its shape from massive cheek muscles. In fact, a giant panda’s jaw and cheek muscles are so powerful that a panda can easily chew an aluminum dish into tiny pieces. They can also easily bite through a thick bamboo stalk. Humans have trouble cutting the same stalk with an ax.

A panda is a zoo’s most expensive animal

Keeping even a single panda in a zoo is expensive. A panda costs five times more to keep than the next most expensive animal, an elephant.

In China, giant pandas are considered to be national treasures.

To be frank, I was not very impressed with the pandas I saw at the Beijing zoo. Most of the time they were busy eating bamboo and did not even bother to look at the crowds busy taking photos of them! I was also most unimpressed with their dirty coat of fur. Perhaps their caretakers have yet to give them their daily bath.

The only thing I liked about this visit was that I could buy 2 cute panda toys...