The giant panda is easily recognizable by the simple and bold coloring of its fur coat. While most of a panda’s fur is white, it is the black markings on it that makes it distinctly unique and unlike any other bear. It has black eye patches as well as black ears, arms, shoulders, and legs. In the wild, male pandas can grow as large as 350 pounds. That's almost three of me (depending on how large of a breakfast I had that day!). Females are a bit smaller, growing to about 250 pounds. Still pretty impressive if you ask me. How big do you think babies are? Much smaller than you think, actually. When pandas are born, they are only about the size of a stick of butter!
A panda's body shape is similar to other bears, but unlike other bears, they have a "false-thumb," that helps them grasp food while the eat. Other bears do not have the same thumb, so in order to eat, they must pin down their food and tear it apart piece by piece with their sharp teeth and strong jaws. A panda simply grabs their food much like humans do and brings it to their mouth, a unique adaption, since about 99% of their diet is bamboo.
Although pandas are considered carnivores, they rarely eat meat. The strange thing is that their digestive tract has the same features as other carnivores – they have a single-chambered stomach which includes a short digestive tract. A panda's digestive tract is very inefficient at digesting bamboo because of its anatomical structure. Baby pandas are born with a sterile digestive tract. In order to obtain the proper bacteria in their stomachs to help digest the vegetation that they will eat when they’re older, baby pandas must eat their mother's feces. Gross!
