Notes

by Raymond wu li


"Panda" redirects here. For other uses, see Panda (disambiguation).

"Panda bear" redirects here. For the musician, see Panda Bear (musician). For the album, see Panda Bear (album).

"The panda" redirects here. For the baseball player nicknamed "The Panda", see Pablo Sandoval.



Giant panda

Grosser Panda.JPG


Conservation status



Vulnerable (IUCN 3.1)[1]


Scientific classification e

Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Clade: Synapsida
Class: Mammalia
Order: Carnivora
Suborder: Caniformia
Family: Ursidae
Genus: Ailuropoda
Species: A. melanoleuca

Binomial name

Ailuropoda melanoleuca
David, 1869

Subspecies

A. m. melanoleuca
A. m. qinlingensis

Mapa distribuicao Ailuropoda melanoleuca.png
Giant panda range

Giant panda
Panda (Chinese characters).svg
"Panda" in Traditional (top) and Simplified (bottom) Chinese characters[2]


Traditional Chinese
熊貓

Simplified Chinese
熊猫

Literal meaning
"bear cat"


[show]Transcriptions






























Alternative Chinese name


Traditional Chinese
貓熊

Simplified Chinese
猫熊

Literal meaning
"cat bear"


[show]Transcriptions















The giant panda (Ailuropoda melanoleuca, literally "black and white cat-foot"; Chinese: 大熊猫; pinyin: dà xióng māo, literally "big bear cat"),[3] also known as panda bear or simply panda, is a bear[4] native to south central China.[1] It is easily recognized by the large, distinctive black patches around its eyes, over the ears, and across its round body. The name "giant panda" is sometimes used to distinguish it from the unrelated red panda. Though it belongs to the order Carnivora, the giant panda's diet is over 99% bamboo.[5] Giant pandas in the wild will occasionally eat other grasses, wild tubers, or even meat in the form of birds, rodents or carrion. In captivity, they may receive honey, eggs, fish, yams, shrub leaves, oranges, or bananas along with specially prepared food.[6][7]

The giant panda lives in a few mountain ranges in central China, mainly in Sichuan province, but also in neighbouring Shaanxi and Gansu.[8] As a result of farming, deforestation, and other development, the giant panda has been driven out of the lowland areas where it once lived.

The giant panda is a conservation reliant vulnerable species.[9][10] A 2007 report shows 239 pandas living in captivity inside China and another 27 outside the country.[11] As of December 2014, 49 giant pandas live in captivity outside China, living in 18 zoos in 13 different countries.[12] Wild population estimates vary; one estimate shows that there are about 1,590 individuals living in the wild,[11] while a 2006 study via DNA analysis estimated that this figure could be as high as 2,000 to 3,000.[13] Some reports also show that the number of giant pandas in the wild is on the rise.[14] In March 2015, Mongabay stated the wild giant panda population increased by 268, or 16.8%, totaling to 1,864 individuals.[15] In 2016, the IUCN reclassified the species from "endangered" to "vulnerable"[10] (it did not believe there was enough certainty yet to do so in 2008[16]).

While the dragon has often served as China's national symbol, internationally the giant panda appears at least as commonly. As such, it is becoming widely used within China in international contexts, for example as one of the five Fuwa mascots of the Beijing Olympics.