GIANT PANDA FACTS
Giant Panda
Ailuropoda melanoleuca meaning “cat-footed, black and white animal”
The Toronto Zoo’s Giant Pandas: Er Shun and Da Mao
Our female giant panda, Er Shun (meaning smooth) was born on August 10, 2007 and was
parent-raised. Er Shun traveled to the Toronto Zoo from from Chongqing Zoo, China. Our
male giant panda, Da Mao was born on September 1, 2008, through artificial insemination and
was hand-raised. Da Mao traveled to the Toronto Zoo from Chengdu.
Chengdu, China, is the capital of Sichuan Province, and has a population of 11 million.
Chengdu has retained not only its name, and its position as the capital, but its importance as
the centre of politics, commerce and the military of the Sichuan area. It is the place where the
Southern Silk Road began and the first paper currency was printed. In addition to the Chengdu
Panda Breeding and Research Centre the Wolong Panda Reserve is also located in Chengdu.
Giant Panda Facts
1.
A panda needs to consume a comparatively large amount of food – from 10 to 15
kilograms (22 to 33 pounds) of bamboo each day – to get all of its nutrients. It is thought
that the giant panda will only consume the best bamboo and therefore the animal has very
selective feeding behaviour, (it will reject normally up to 85% of bamboo offered) and it will
need to go through at least 50 kilograms of bamboo per day to find the best bamboo. This
can take up to 16 hours of eating per day! The rest is spent mostly sleeping and resting.
2.
Giant pandas do not hibernate because their food source, bamboo, is available year
round and their diet does not permit them to build up enough fat to carry them through a
hibernation period. However, they will shelter temporarily in hollow trees, rock crevices
and caves during the winter.
3.
Giant Pandas can eat 25 different types of bamboo, but they usually eat only four or five
that grow in their home range.
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4.
If two cubs are born the mother will only look after one of them, so in captivity keepers will
help raise any twin cubs using a method called "twin swapping". One baby is left with the
mother and the keepers switch the twins every few days so each one gets care and milk
directly from the mother.
5.
Panda cubs are born blind and extremely immature, weighing only 80-200 grams, and are
about the size of a stick of butter. They are pink in color, with short sparse white hair, and
are 1/900th the size of their mother, one of the smallest newborn mammals relative to its
mother's size.
6.
Giant panda females are monoestrous, which means they have only one reproductive
cycle per year and that is the only time the female is receptive to the male and that is only
for a period of 24 to 72 hours. Calls and scent marking attract males and females to each
other.
7.
One cannot easily tell if a giant panda is a male or a female until it is four years old. Due
to the difficulty of determining the sex of pandas it was believed that Er Shun was a male
until genetic testing was done.
8.
In the past the black and white markings on giant pandas may have helped them to blend
into their snowy and rocky surroundings to avoid natural predators.
9.
The Chinese call the giant pandas "Big Bear Cat". This is because their eyes have vertical
slits like a cat's, not round pupils like a bear's.
10. Giant pandas can swim and climb trees.
11. The giant panda's teeth are approximately seven times bigger than a human's teeth,
which helps the giant panda chew and eat bamboo.
12. Unique physical features that help giant pandas to hold, crush and eat bamboo are broad,
flat molar teeth and an enlarged wrist bone that functions as an opposable thumb.
13.
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Following ancient Chinese tradition, giant panda cubs are not to be named until they
have been alive for 100 days.
14.
Given its large diet, giant pandas can defecate up to 40 times a day.
15.
Giant pandas are ready to breed between four and eight years of age and may be
reproductive until about age 20.
16.
Under the giant panda's white fur, their skin is pale in colour and under the black fur,
their skin is black!