Giant Pandas Are the Rarest Bears

Although pandas have gained recent popularity ever since Jack Black personified one in the movie Kung Fu Panda, results show that these lovable bears keep disappearing.

In fact, the giant pandas have been on the endangered species list for over 25 years and there still hasn’t been a dramatic increase in their numbers.

What Is Limiting Pandas’ Growth?

Unlike some animals on the endangered species list, the giant panda isn’t necessarily limited by humans.

Most, if not all, of their diet comes from eating shoots of bamboo, which unfortunately is very low in nutrients.

Because bamboo only grows in the highlands of Asia, the panda is forced to live on the steep slopes of the high mountain ranges.

This means that when winter comes around and the rest of the animals descend to lower ground, the panda is forced to stay in the snowy mountain tops to forage for bamboo.

Bamboo also makes very poor milk for young panda cubs and most pandas who grow up in the wild only have about a 1 in 2 survival rate.

Pandas Live A Solitary Life

Excepting those that are in confinement, most pandas roam on their own for most of their time, coming together only when it is time to mate.

When the baby pandas are born they are blind and hairless, weighing only a couple pounds. These cubs are utterly defenseless and depend upon their mothers for about 18 months.

After a cub is weaned, the panda will then have to establish its own territory, using scent glands beneath their tails for marking territory borders.

Pandas Are Not Fierce

Despite the fact that pandas are indeed a bear and can weigh over 300 pounds, these bears are very docile and avoid their predators by climbing trees.

Pandas are also quite stealthy and can quickly move through tunnels of bamboo without being seen or heard.

Since most pandas are threatened more by starvation than by predators, it seems most of them don’t need to learn Kung-Fu.