Pandas are extremely rare, bearlike animals that live in the snowy parts of central China. There are two types of pandas- the giant panda and the red panda, also known as the lesser panda. The giant panda, their unique black and white spots, is the more familiar of the two. Giant pandas and red pandas belong to their own separate family, the Ailuropodidea. Their closest living relatives are bears.
Giant pandas start life at the surprisingly small weight of 4 ounces or 104 grams, about the size of a stick of butter. This tiny infant grows into an adult weighing from 180 to 270 pounds or 80 to 120 kilograms. Adult giant pandas have coarse black eye patches that give them their unique cute appeal.
Giant pandas in the wild are found in only one place in the world: Sichuan province in Central China. They are being protected in forest reserves. However, with the growing human population which means decrease in their food supply and also human threats to them. Today, there are less a thousand of them which still exist.
They spend most of their time wandering around the vast forests looking for bamboos to feed. These are their main food but they also eat other types of plants. Captive pandas are being fed by their caretakers commonly with rice, carrots, apples and sweet potato. Like animals, they need a right amount of food to survive which means that they have to feed on great amount of bamboo which is 85 pounds every day.
To help them eat their food, they have very strong jaws and flat molar for squashing. They also have weird-shaped wrist bone that looks similar to like a little thumb.
These pandas are very solitary but they get together during mating season every year. They communicate through honks, moans and growls.
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