Three rumors and two truths about pandas
Compared with other bears, the short kiss (nose bridge), wide cheeks, round big head, a pair of figure-eight dark circles and wobbly walking posture … The baby (cub) characteristics of the giant panda (Ailuropoda melanoleuca) inspire our instinct to protect our cubs, and few people refuse to be cute.

Panda cubs. | Li Binbin
Panda is cute, but cute is not enough to be the reason why we spend a lot of money and material resources to protect a species. Are pandas doomed to extinction? Are we wasting resources on protecting this species? To answer these questions, we need to break three rumors first.
Rumor 1. Pandas have reached a dead end of evolution.
Many people say that giant pandas should eat meat for a living, but they are vegetarian and choose bamboo, which is the most difficult to swallow and not nutritious among plants. In essence, bamboo is a woody grass (monocotyledonous Gramineae), and more than 90% of its dry weight is lignin, cellulose and hemicellulose. Cellulose and hemicellulose up to 65%. In addition, it also contains a lot of silicon, which can be said to be firm, hard and nutritious. Eating it is like eating squeezed bagasse.

The panda’s main food looks particularly palatable. |Chi / flickr
Although the entrance of bamboo is not good, it is widely distributed and abundant, and other animals don’t eat it. Hiding in the bamboo forest can also avoid large animals such as saber-toothed tigers. Moreover, some studies show that pandas lost their umami receptors 4.2 million years ago due to gene mutation (Tas1r1 pseudogeneization), which means that meat and panda food are boring. However, it’s hard to have a definite answer whether you don’t think the meat is fragrant first or you start eating bamboo first. We can guess why pandas eat bamboo, but it is difficult to prove it. But come to think of it carefully, no matter what hypothesis, this great change in feeding has helped pandas to reduce their direct competition with other species to a great extent, which is a wise move.

In Qinling Mountains, pandas eat bamboo. | Li Binbin
Although the food habit has turned to bamboo, the digestive system of panda still retains the characteristics of carnivore, and the food stays and digests for a short time, and there is no enzyme that can decompose cellulose and lignin. However, the panda is not a sad fat man. It has evolved many magical weapons by virtue of its brute strength. Since food is poor in nutrition and difficult to decompose and absorb, you should keep eating it efficiently and laboriously.
Weapon 1. False thumb and good mouth
Panda’s wrist sesamoid specialized into the sixth finger "pseudo thumb". It enables pandas to have a grip function that other bears don’t have, so they can grasp it better, perform more precise operations, and eat bamboo flexibly and in one go. This kind of grip is not common, except koalas, North American opossums (toes) and most primates, which also eat bamboo pandas. Among them, only the big panda and the little panda specially developed the "sixth finger" to hold the other five fingers. The giant panda and the little panda are not closely related, but in order to adapt to eating bamboo, they have evolved the same characteristics, which is called "convergent evolution".

The fake thumb is the meat pad near the panda’s right eye. There are no claws on this finger. Panda’s hind paw doesn’t have a sixth finger. If you have a chance to see the panda’s front footprints, it will be six finger prints and five paw prints. |Thibaud Despres / animalli.com
Compared with all kinds of bears, panda’s bite force is second only to polar bears and brown bears. It has powerful masticatory muscles and a heavy and thick skull, which provides structural support for its strong bite force (there is a reason for its face). Eating bamboo is like eating cucumber. Bite it neatly and never drag your feet. This flat food mark is one of the signs of panda identification in the wild. So, don’t touch the panda at will, be careful to grab your hand and take a bite …

The "fake thumb" made the panda realize the opposite grip. By the way, see how good the mouth is. | Dong Lei
Weapon 2. Specially equipped intestines
Pandas also increase the surface area of absorbed substances by increasing the number and length of intestinal villi. At the same time, their intestinal secretions increase, protecting the intestines from being pricked by bamboo with high silicon content; These secretions will also be wrapped outside the stool to help the stool be discharged smoothly. Some of the scraped cells make it possible for researchers to extract DNA from panda poop-using this DNA information, we can carry out the related work of panda individual identification.

Panda poop, from which researchers can extract panda DNA. The depth of color depends on whether it eats bamboo leaves or bamboo poles. |WWF-UK
Weapon 3. Patience and wisdom
Pandas not only eat efficiently, but also have special patience. Pandas in the wild spend more than half (10 ~ 14 hours) eating every day, and most of the rest time is spent sleeping. The daily intake can reach 12 ~ 40 kg (depending on which part you eat), which is close to 20 ~ 40% of your body weight. However, because of the lack of nutrition and water, most of bamboo is discharged. Whether you eat or sleep, you can’t stop the panda from defecating. In the wild where pandas are distributed, their droppings are very existential-shuttle-shaped, in which bamboo poles and leaves can be clearly distinguished, without odor, and thrown into alcohol like green tea.

Panda poop is also a popular science prop in the zoo. |hannah
Pandas eat bamboo and are clever. Bamboo shoots are the most nutritious, so from early spring, pandas will chase the bamboo shoots all the way and eat them from low altitude to high altitude. In summer, bamboo leaves have the best nutrition, so they are eaten tightly. In winter, nutrition runs to bamboo poles, and pandas chew hard goods. Therefore, pandas can be distributed from the low valley to the altitude limit of bamboo of about 3500 meters, and rely on seasonal vertical migration to meet their own nutritional needs.
Therefore, pandas are not a failure in evolutionary history, they are the winners of the cunning [guǐ jué].
Proverbs 2. Pandas are "frigid" and have difficulty in reproduction.
In addition to the migration law, the breeding time of giant pandas is also related to the growth rhythm of bamboo. March to May is the mating season for pandas. Although females are only in estrus for two or three days and males are short, it does not prevent pandas from exuberant sexual desire and reproduction in the wild. Females can mate with multiple males in a short estrus period, while males look for females in estrus everywhere, and they can sow everywhere as long as they can beat other competitors.
Pandas are sexually mature at the age of 4-5. As long as they are not raising their cubs, all individuals will participate in breeding and can’t stop them. After mating, they return to their own solitary lives, do not interfere with each other, and will not raise the next generation together. This kind of open mating with multiple females and males is not "frigid" at all.
Pandas breed once every two or three years, with 1 ~ 2 babies each time, and they will choose to raise stronger babies to grow up, with a survival rate as high as 60 ~ 90%. This reproduction rate is not bad at all in higher animals. That pandas can’t be born is only blinded by the news in captivity.

Pandas who like to climb and hug trees and rest on them. Panda cubs tend to stay in trees for a long time to avoid natural enemies. | Li Binbin
Panda’s birth date is nearly half a year from mating, but their eggs are dormant after fertilization and float in the uterus until certain conditions are met, and then they will fall on the uterine wall and begin to develop. This is delayed implantation of the bear. For pandas, the intrauterine development time is less than two months, so the cubs born are only one-third as heavy as a can of coke. Some researchers suspect that the condition of fertilized eggs implantation is that the mother changes from eating bamboo shoots to eating bamboo leaves rich in calcium.

Sudden birth. Pay attention to the cub’s size. | panda
After birth, the baby will cling to his mother for milk like a follower until he is nine months old and begins to eat bamboo. It’s April and May when spring is blooming, and fresh and tender bamboo shoots rich in protein come out. This breeding cycle can just make the next generation catch up with the best season. Individuals who can reproduce so far can of course make full use of the food growth cycle.
Proverbs 3. When bamboo blooms, pandas will starve to death.
Bamboo does have periodic collective flowering and then die in pieces. However, there are nearly 40 species of bamboo distributed in the panda’s habitat, which can be eaten by pandas. The collective flowering cycle of bamboo is different. When one kind of bamboo blooms, pandas move to other places to find another kind of bamboo to eat.

There are many bamboos that pandas can eat, such as Muzhu (left) and Arrow Bamboo (right). | plantphoto.cn
Pandas are highly nearsighted, but in the dense bamboo forests under the forest, your eyesight is useless, even if there are fairies a few meters away, you can’t see them. The panda has an excellent sense of smell. Before you see it, it can smell that you are not the same kind. The first reaction will be to avoid it and walk away silently. At the same time, they also distinguish territories and convey courtship signals through smell marks. When the tail is tilted, urine is mixed through the secretion of perianal glands to mark the trunk.

Watch the tail carefully! Although it is less than 20 cm, it is still the longest tail among bears except lazy bears. No matter how dirty you sit, it is white, not black. |cliff1066™ / flickr
Truth 1. The threat of pandas lies in the loss of habitat.
Delicious and edible bamboo needs the protection of the forest. If there is no shade, bamboo will grow too dense and thick. At the same time, forests with less interference often have big trees, which can provide pandas with litter holes. This is why a good forest is so important to pandas.

Panda habitat in Wang Lang National Nature Reserve, healthy bamboo forest under spruce and fir. | Li Binbin
Looking up at the trees in the sky, looking down at the green bamboos, hanging branches of pineapples, densely covered with moss, and flowing through the gentle slopes, this is the paradise of pandas. With their unique choices, the uncontested pandas could have lived in peace all the time. They are not short of food.
However, the sound of deforestation sounded, all avenues passed through the forest, bulldozers pushed away the shelter, and brought the imprint of the city. Hydropower, minerals, farmland, grazing, and even commercial tourism development, uncontrolled people and traffic are squeezing the panda’s wild habitat step by step, breaking it into parts and "breaking it down one by one." Taking Wang Lang Giant Panda Reserve as an example, grazing has led to the degradation or even disappearance of more than one third of the panda habitat. The reduction and fragmentation of habitats, coupled with rapid climate change, are the real threats faced by pandas.

Bamboo that died after being eaten by cattle and horses in the panda habitat in Pingwu, Sichuan. | Li Binbin
Although the number of pandas has increased in the past decade, it has been divided into 33 local populations, of which 18 local populations have fewer than 10 individuals, which is highly endangered. They are separated from other local populations by natural or artificial barriers, making it difficult for individuals and genes to communicate. If bamboo blooms and dies, another kind of green bamboo may not be far away, but there is no ecological corridor connecting the two areas, so pandas can’t get through; If a malignant disease strikes, the local population is too similar, and it is difficult for individuals to survive with disease-resistant genes-the result may be the collapse of a local population. With the rapid climate change, the growth mode and scope of bamboo have changed. Will the giant pandas have time to migrate and adapt? Are their prospects optimistic?
Truth 2. Protecting pandas is not only protecting pandas.
As the only country with wild giant pandas, our protection should not stop at expanding the captive population. It is more reasonable to put resources into the protection of wild habitats. This kind of protection not only protects pandas, but also protects the lifeblood of other creatures.

Because of the establishment of the panda reserve, these areas still retain intact virgin forests. The picture shows Wang Lang National Nature Reserve in Sichuan. | Li Binbin
The distribution area of pandas happens to be the area with the highest concentration of endemic species in China, and 96% of panda habitats are hot spots of endemic species distribution in China (endemic species in China, that is, creatures you can’t find outside China). There are more than 8,000 species of animals and plants in the panda habitat, covering 70% of mammals endemic to China, 70% of birds endemic to China and 30% of amphibians endemic to the forest. It can be said that protecting any forest that pandas like sheltered many unknown, unique and possibly endangered species.

Nearly one-third of the national hotspots of mammals, birds and amphibians are located in the panda habitat. |ShutterPulp / flickr
For these species, it may be difficult for you to find them cute, it may be difficult for you to donate money to them, it may be difficult for you to know their existence or even remember their names, and their disappearance may be neglected. However, a healthy ecosystem, a vibrant forest, is marked by these species, as well as the known or unknown intricate relationship between species.
I don’t know if we are too lucky. In the southwest mountainous area of China, a biodiversity hotspot that is even important to the whole world, there is a star species, the panda, that people all over the world pay attention to. Because of this concern, compared with other areas in China, it is considered a lucky land. Panda is like a big umbrella, protecting these creatures who live in the same land with it.
Author: Li Binbin
Editor: hannah
An AI
You love pandas, are you willing to pay more attention to their wild homes, and are you willing to use your choices to support local people to find reasons and motivation to protect forests?
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