Giant Pandas Fur example essay topic

The Giant Panda (Ailuropoda Melanoleuca) lives in the bamboo forests of southwestern China. This type of panda is endangered and to this day " there are only around a thousand pandas left" (http//: panda. org, 1). "Adult giant pandas have a length of 160 to 180 centimeters (5/14 to 6 feet). The weight of an adult male giant panda is normally between 80 and 125 kilograms (176 and 276 pounds) with males typically weighing about 10% to 20% more than females -- about the same size as the American black bear. However, unlike the black bear, giant pandas do not hibernate and cannot walk on their hind legs" (Etling 1).

"Giant pandas have a massive head, heavy body, short tail (approximately 5 inches) rounded ears and plantigrade feet" (Etling 1). Giant pandas have the tendency to "develop large molars which are specifically designed to crush fibrous plant material" (Etling 1). The giant pandas fur "is thick and coarse; it consists of a coarse outer layer and a very dense, wool-like underfur" (Etling 1). The fur of the panda is oily and "protects pandas from the cool and damp climate in which [they live in]" (Etling 1).

Their fur color is mainly white with patches of black on its legs, ears, back, and its eyes. This picture shows the black color pattern on pandas' fur. The life span of an average panda bear is 15 years of age. Some pandas even live into their twenties and those kept captive may even reach the age of thirty. "D udu, the oldest known captive giant panda recently died in China at the ripe old age of thirty-seven" (Etling 4).

Pandas bodies are large and it is difficult for them to get away from enemies or even just to get around. "Giant pandas generally move in a slow, determined manner. When startled, they will move at a slow trot to escape danger. Giant pandas, with their sharp claws, are capable of climbing trees very easily" (Etling 1). They climb the trees in order to get away from anything that they feel is a threat to them. "Although giant pandas rarely fight they will let other's know of their disapproval by grunting and with body language" (Etling 4)".

Giant pandas signify aggression by lowering their heads and staring at their opponents. To show submissiveness, a giant panda will put its head between its front legs, often hiding its eye-patches with its paws. At close range, aggression is signaled by a swipe with a paw, or by alow-pitched growl or bark" (Etling 4). "Giant pandas are by nature solitary animals, most of the time avoiding direct contact with others of their own kind" (Etling 3). "In the spring, between March and May, the females must seek each other out in order to mate" (Etling 3). "Pandas are known to begin mating at six years of age" (Jonkel 1)".

In the months of August or September, one or two cubs are born in a sheltered den made of twigs and leaves. The mother will hold the cub to its chest with both paws until the youngster squirms away. This is to ensure that the cub is alive and well. The young cub will become the mother's constant companion for the next 18 months until the cub is able to live on its own" (Etling 3).

When panda cubs are born they usually "weigh 3 to 5 ounces or about 4-5 grams each (1/900th of the mothers weight) " (Etling 1). When the baby pandas are born, they are blind and hairless. After a short 10 days, the cubs eventually grow hair and gain sight. The pandas eating diet is very basic. There are 25 different types of bamboo that pandas eat. When the panda eats bamboo, the panda usually sits in an upright position holding the bamboo out in front of it.

This picture demonstrates how the giant panda eats bamboo". The differing varieties of bamboo go through periodic die-offs as part of their renewal cycle. The bamboo, at the end of its life cycle will bloom and drop its seeds and then it dies. Often vast areas of the forest disappear at the same time. In the past the giant panda responded to this phenomenon by moving to another area. But increased human settlement makes it difficult for the giant panda to reach new food supplies.

Without the ability to move to new areas which have not been affected, starvation and death will certainly occur for the giant panda" (Etling 6). "Although the giant panda has the digestive system of a carnivore, however, over time the giant panda adapted to a vegetarian diet such as bamboo" (web 1). the panda is often ly thought to eat only bamboo; there are other foods that a panda will eat". While bamboo stalks and roots make up 95% of its diet, the giant panda also feeds on gentians, irises, crocuses, fish, pikas, vines, mushrooms, rice grass and occasionally small rodents. The giant panda will eat meat although rarely.

The giant panda must eat 20 to 40 pounds of food each day to survive, and spends 10 to 16 hours a day feeding" (Etling 6). At one point in time, giant pandas flourished in eastern China and several neighboring countries". The giant panda is believed to have made its first appearance during the late Pilocene or early Pleistocene, perhaps no more than two to three million years ago. Panda fossils have been found in present day Burma, Vietnam, and particularly early in eastern China, as far north as Being" (Etling 2). Today pandas are mostly in dense bamboo and mountains of central / eastern China". Pandas occupy 6 small forest fragments in small isolated areas of the central and eastern portions of the Sichuan Province, in the mountains bordering the southernmost part of Gansu Province, and in theQinling Mountains of the Shaanxi Province.

In general the giant panda's home territory will range from 3.8 to 6.5 square kilometers (1.5 to 2.5 square miles). They inhabit damp, misty forests of bamboo and conifers. Their preferred habitat has dense stands of at least one species of bamboo" (Etling 5). Although it was only about 1,800 years ago in 260 AD, the panda was first discovered by man.

The panda was then hunted for its fur coat, which led to a huge decrease in the number of pandas. "Today however, there are only around 1,000 left, and all of these are found in one geographic region-the bamboo forests of southwestern China" (http//: panda. org, 1). Then in the 1950's after hunting pandas was made illegal, another problem that threatened the population of pandas came up. "The timber union had switched from selective cutting to clear cutting" (web 1).

This method involved cutting down thousands of acres of trees. "Under such circumstances timber gathering had destroyed panda habitats" (Wenshi 1)". A month later the State Council approved a plan to stop logging in the Qin ling Mountain area and to reassign all the timber workers. The central government allocated $3 million, the Shaanxi provincial government $3.6 million and the World Bank $4.77 million. Moreover, a new national nature reserve was set up in the region to preserve the local giant panda population" (Wenshi 1).

Giant Panda Conservation Efforts In 1957 the first efforts were taken to protect it. They established the first panda reserves in 1963. Currently there are 13 reserves in 6 remaining forest fragments. In 1986 the American Zoo and Aquarium Association issued guidelines for short-term loans to ensure that pandas were not being removed from breeding programs in China or recently taken from the wild. In 1987, The Giant Panda Task Force was established by the American Zoo and Aquarium Association to collaborate with the US Fish and Wildlife Department, the IUCN and the Chinese Government. It established a research and propagation program with the Chinese Association of Zoological Gardens, the Chinese Forest Ministry and Institutional holders of giant pandas.

In 1989 the 'National Conservation Management Plan for the Giant Panda and its Habitat' was formulated by the Chinese Ministry of Forestry and the World Wildlife Fund. It provided for: This is one of the habitats reserved for the giant pandas. 1. Reduction of human activities in panda habitat (removal of human settlements, modification of forestry operations, control of poaching) 2. Management of bamboo habitat 3.

Extension of the panda reserve system 4. Outbreeding between panda populations (establishing forest / bamboo corridors to link separate population units, introduction of captive-born young to existing wild populations 5. Maintenance of a captive population 1996 marks the beginning of a 12- year giant panda loan agreement between the San Diego Zoo and the People's Republic of China. The Zoological Society of San Diego will contribute $1,000,000 annually to further the cause of wild panda habitat protection.

Funds will specifically go to 3 of China's nature reserves in Sichuan Province: Wu jiao, Baodinggou, and Yel e. In addition, behaviorists, endocrinologists, reproductive physiologists, geneticists and others at the Zoological Society's Center for Reproduction of Endangered Species will begin in-depth studies of panda behavior and reproductive biology". (web) Pandas which are on the endangered species list. They are the second most endangered species of animals. Even though pandas are not predicted to come off the endangered species list for a while, scientists predict that they will rise out of the state of being endangered. Although it may seem to be a distant goal, with the help of laws, pandas will hopefully never come close to extinct.

Bibliography

1. Etling, geo cities. com / Athens/Aroplis/94922. Jonkel, Charles. "Giant Panda" Encarta Encyclopedia. 1998. Pg. 13. Wenshi, Pan. china 2 thou. com/98124. hdmi. com / won /Giant panda 5. nature-net. com / bears /panda 6. panda / org /resources / fact sheets / species /fact panda 7. san diego. org / special /pandas / panda.