Its thick fur coat also keeps it warm because the shady forest habitats that it generally lives in are very cool.
A panda’s unique diet and its incompatible digestive tract means that the food that it eats does not provide it with a lot of energy, so it must eat anywhere from 30 to 80 pounds of food each day to make up for this. This large amount of food also makes a panda defecate up to 40 times day. How inconvenient! The low energy that the panda’s diet provides also affects its behavior. For example, pandas don’t tend to climb up steep hills.
In order for a panda to have sufficient amounts of food, there must be at least two different types of bamboo in their habitat. Since each species of bamboo reproduces and dies at the same rate, pandas must then seek out a different species to eat. In captivity, pandas are fed bamboo as well as fruits, eggs, meat, or specially made nutrient biscuits.
Unlike other bears, pandas do not hibernate. They move from place to place in order to find nutrients from different foods and in order to reproduce, so they don’t have a permanent home to hibernate in. Instead, to avoid the cold they just move to a different part of their habitat that is warmer.
Pandas are considered endangered because of their small numbers in the wild. Farming and deforestation are major contributors to their small population, driving them out of their habitat and away from a proper food source that fits their specialized diet. In addition, pandas have a low birth-rate, both in the wild and in captivity, which also leads to a small population.
In the past, panda populations declined because of poaching.
