Giant Panda

? Giant Panda Conservation status: Endangered
Hua Mei, the baby panda born at the San Diego Zoo in 1999.
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia Phylum: Chordata Class: Mammalia Order: Carnivora Family: Ursidae Genus: Ailuropoda Milne-Edwards, 1870 Species: A. melanoleuca
Binomial name
Ailuropoda melanoleuca ( David, 1869)

The Giant Panda (Ailuropoda melanoleuca "black-and-white cat-foot") is a mammal now usually classified in the bear family, Ursidae, native to central and southern China. [1]

The Panda's main food is bamboo, but they may eat other foods such as honey. Easily recognizable through its large, distinctive black patches on the eyes, ears and on its rotund body, the Giant Panda is one of the most endangered animals in the world: an estimated 1,600 pandas live in the wild and some 160 live in captivity, according to a 2004 census. [2]

General information

The Giant Panda lives in mountainous regions, such as Sichuan and Tibet. The Giant Panda is the symbol of the World Wildlife Fund (WWF), a conservation organization. Since the latter half of the 20th century, the panda has become an informal national emblem for China, and its image is found on many Chinese gold coins.

Despite being taxonomically a carnivore, the panda has a diet that is overwhelmingly herbivorous. The Giant Panda eats shoots and leaves, living almost entirely on bamboo. Pandas are also known to eat eggs, the occasional fish, and some insects along with their bamboo diet. These are necessary sources of protein.

For many decades the precise taxonomic classification of the panda was under debate as both the Giant Panda and the distantly related Red Panda share characteristics of both bears and raccoons. However, genetic testing has revealed that Giant Pandas are true bears and part of the Ursidae family. Its closest bear relative is the Spectacled Bear of South America. (Disagreement remains about whether or not the Red Panda belongs in Ursidae; the raccoon family, Procyonidae; or in its own family, Ailuridae.)

Giant Pandas are an endangered species, threatened by continued habitat loss and by a very low birthrate, both in the wild and in captivity. About 1,600 are believed to survive in the wild. Poaching is uncommon; killing a panda was punishable in China by death until a 1997 law changed the penalty to 20 years imprisonment.

The Giant Panda has an unusual paw, with a " thumb" and five fingers; the "thumb" is actually a modified sesamoid bone. Stephen Jay Gould wrote an essay about this, then used the title The Panda's Thumb for a book of collected essays. The Giant Panda has a short tail, approximately 15 cm long.

The Giant Panda has long been a favourite of the public, at least partly on account of the fact that the species has an appealing baby-like cuteness that makes it seem to resemble a living teddy bear. The fact that it is usually depicted reclining peacefully eating bamboo, as opposed to hunting, also adds to its image of innocence. Though the Giant Panda is often assumed docile because of their cuteness, they have been known to attack humans, usually assumed to be out of irritation rather than predatory behaviour.

Giant Panda's can usually live to be 20-30 years old while living in captivity.

Natural history

No fossils of pandas have been found earlier than a few million years ago. However DNA analysis of the Giant Panda compared with other bears show a very early split from the main bear lineage 18 or 15 million years ago. That was about the time when the "dawn bear" (Ursavus) roamed the subtropics of Europe. Like a subtropical mammal, the Giant Panda does not hibernate. Fossils from Pleistocene sites throughout East Asia prove the success of the Giant Panda. In the Lang Trang caves of northern Vietnam, fossils of pandas were found, far away from the typical mountain forests where pandas are found presently. Other fossils have been found as far south as Thailand and Burma, going as far north as where Beijing stands today. Fossils also show a second extinct panda species. This species, Ailuropoda minor, was half the size of the modern Giant Panda.

According to a paper published in 2002, the genome of the panda shows evidence of a severe population bottleneck which took place about 43,000 years ago ¹ and the age of the most recent common ancestor of the current panda populations is estimated to be 43,000 years before present.

Uses and conservation history

Unlike many other animals in Ancient China, pandas were rarely thought to have medical uses. The only considered medical use was probably of panda urine, to melt needles accidentally swallowed in the throat. In the past, pandas were thought to be rare and noble creatures; the mother of Emperor Wen of Han was buried with a panda skull in her tomb. Emperor Taizong of Tang was said to have given Japan two pandas and a sheet of panda skin as a sign of goodwill. Panda skin was considered a sign of courage afterwards, and thus pandas became a target for poachers.

The Giant Panda was first made known to the West in 1869 by the French missionary Armand David, who received a skin from a hunter on 11 March 1869. The first westerner known to have seen a living Giant Panda is the German zoologist Hugo Weigold, who purchased a cub in 1916. Kermit and Theodore Roosevelt, Jr. became the first foreigners to shoot a panda, on an expedition funded by the Field Museum of Natural History in the 1920s. In 1936, Ruth Harkness became the first Westerner to bring back a live Giant Panda, a cub named Su-Lin who went to live at the Brookfield Zoo in Chicago. These activities were halted in 1937 because of wars; and for the next half of the century, the West knew little of the pandas.

Because of the Second Sino-Japanese War and the Chinese Civil War afterwards, foreigners were unable to poach pandas in China, but pandas remained a source of soft furs for the locals. The population boom in China after 1949 created stress on the pandas' habitat, and the subsequent famines led to the increased hunting of wildlife, including pandas. During the Cultural Revolution, all studies and conservation activities on the pandas were stopped. After the Chinese economic reform, demands for panda skin from Hong Kong and Japan led to illegal poaching for the black market, acts generally ignored by the local officials at the time.

Though the Sichuan Wolong Reserve was set up by the PRC government in 1958 to save the declining pandas, few advances in the conservation of pandas were made, due to inexperience and insufficient knowledge in ecology. Many believed that the best way to save the pandas was to cage them, and as a result, the pandas were caged for any sign of decline, and they suffered from terrible conditions. Because of pollution and destruction of their natural habitat, along with segregation due to caging, reproduction of wild pandas was severely limited. In the 1990s, however, several laws (including gun controls and moving residents out of the reserves) helped the chances of survival for pandas. With the ensued efforts and improved conservation methods, wild pandas have started to increase in numbers in some areas.

Loans of Giant Pandas to American and Japanese zoos formed an important part of the diplomacy of the People's Republic of China in the 1970s as it marked some of the first cultural exchanges between the PRC and the West. This practice has been termed " Panda Diplomacy".

By the year 1984, however, pandas were no longer used as agents of diplomacy. Instead, China began to offer pandas to other nations only on 10-year loans. The standard loan terms include a fee of up to US$1,000,000 per year and a provision that any cubs born during the loan are the property of the People's Republic of China. Since 1998, due to a WWF lawsuit, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service only allows a U.S. zoo to import a panda if the zoo can ensure that China will channel more than half of its loan fee into conservation efforts for wild pandas and their habitat.

By 2005, political tensions had eased between mainland China (People's Republic of China) and Taiwan (Republic of China), causing the mainland to suggest giving Taiwan two pandas as a diplomatic gift. This is met by polarized opinions from Taiwan. [3]

Reproduction

Giant pandas reproduce very slowly, and infant mortality is high. Growth is slow and pandas may not reach sexual maturity until they are five to seven years old. The mating season usually takes place from mid-March to mid-May. During this time, two to five males can compete for one female; the male with the highest rank gets the female. When mating, the female is in a crouching, head-down position as the male mounts from behind. Copulation time is short, ranging from thirty seconds to five minutes, but the male may mount repeatedly to ensure successful fertilization. Mating is also a very noisy time, accompanied by moaning and squealing.

The whole gestation period ranges from 83 to 163 days, with 135 days being the average. Baby pandas weigh only 90 to 130 grams, which is about 1/900th of the mother’s weight. Usually, the female panda gives birth to one or two panda cubs. Since baby pandas are born very small and helpless, they need the mother’s undivided attention, so she is able to care for only one of her cubs. She usually abandons one of her cubs, and it dies soon after birth. At this time, scientists do not know how the female chooses which cub to raise, and this is a topic of ongoing research.

The father has no part in helping with raising the cub. When the cub is first born, it is pink, naked and blind. It nurses from its mother's breast 6–14 times a day for up to 30 minutes each time. For three to four hours, the mother might leave the den to feed, which leaves the panda cub defenseless. One to two weeks after birth, the cub's skin turns gray where its hair will eventually become black. A month after birth, the colour pattern of the cub’s fur is fully developed. The cub begins to crawl at 75 to 90 days and the mothers play with their cubs by rolling and wrestling with them. The cubs are able to eat small quantities of bamboo after six months, though mother's milk remains the primary food source for most of the first year. Giant panda cubs weigh 45 kg at one year and live with their mother until they are 18 months to two years old. The interval between births in the wild is generally two years.

Breeders and biologists often experience difficulty in inducing captive pandas to mate, threatening their already diminished population. This problem may stem from the captive bears' lack of experience. In an attempt to remedy this, some keepers in China and Thailand have shown their subjects "panda porn" videos, containing footage of mating pandas. In some cases, the bears have been sufficiently stimulated from the videos to engage in reproductive activity. It is not likely that the animals actually learn mating behaviors from the video; rather, scientists believe that hearing the associated sounds has a stimulating effect on the bears exposed to it.

Name

The name "panda" originates with a Himalayan language, possibly Nepalese. And as used in the West it was originally applied to the Red Panda, to which it was thought to be related. Until its relation to the Red Panda was "discovered" in 1901, the Giant Panda was known as Mottled Bear (Ailuropus melanoleucus) or Parti-colored Bear.

In Chinese, the Giant Panda is called the "large bear cat" ( Simplified Chinese: 大熊猫; Traditional Chinese: 大熊貓; Hanyu pinyin: Dàxióngmāo), or sometimes (usually in Taiwan) "cat bear" ( Simplified Chinese: 猫熊; Traditional Chinese: 貓熊; Hanyu pinyin: Māoxióng). Since Chinese stative verbs ( adjectives) are almost always placed before nouns, the latter (cat[-like] bear) is more grammatically correct. However, the former (bear, cat[-like]) is more widely-used.

Most bears' eyes have round pupils. The exception is the Giant Panda, whose pupils are vertical slits, like cats' eyes. It is these unusual eyes that inspired the Chinese to call the panda the "giant cat bear".

Subspecies

Two subspecies of Giant Panda have been recognized on the basis of distinct cranial measurements, colour patterns, and population genetics (Wan et al., 2005).

Ailuropoda melanoleuca melanoleuca consists of most extant populations of panda. These animals are principally found in Sichuan and display the typical stark black and white contrasting colors.

Ailuropoda melanoleuca qinlingensis is restricted to the Qinling Mountains in Shaanxi at elevations of 1300–3000 m. The typical black and white pattern of Sichuan pandas is replaced with a dark brown versus light brown pattern. The skull of A. m. qinlingensis is smaller than its relatives and it has larger molars.

Pandas in zoos

As of 2005, four major American zoos have Giant Pandas (listed in order in which they acquired the pandas):

• San Diego Zoo, San Diego, California - home of Bai Yun (F), Gao Gao (M), Mei Sheng (M), and a female cub named Su Lin
• The US National Zoo, Washington, D.C. - home of Mei Xiang (F), Tian Tian (M), and a male cub named Tai Shan
• Zoo Atlanta, Atlanta, Georgia - home of Lun Lun (F) and Yang Yang (M)
• Memphis Zoo, Memphis, Tennessee - home of Ya Ya (F) and Le Le (M)

There is one zoo in Mexico:

• Chapultepec Zoo, Mexico City, Mexico - home of Shuan Shuan, Xin Xin and Xi Hua, all females

Two zoos in Europe show Giant Pandas:

• Zoologischer Garten Berlin, Berlin, Germany - home of Bao Bao, age 27, the oldest panda living in captivity; he has been in Berlin for 25 years and has never reproduced.
• Tiergarten Schönbrunn, Vienna, Austria

Pandas in Japan have double names: a Japanese name and a Chinese name. Three zoos in Japan show Giant Pandas:

• Ueno Zoo, Tokyo - home of Ling Ling (M), he is the only panda with "Japanese citizenship".
• Oji Zoo, Kobe, Hyogo - home of Kou Kou (M), Tan Tan (F)
• Adventure World, Shirahama, Wakayama - Ei Mei (M), Mei Mei (F), Rau Hin (F), Ryu Hin and Syu Hin (male twins), and Kou Hin (M). Yu Hin (M) went to China in 2004.

The Chiang Mai Zoo in northern Thailand is home to Chuang Chuang (M) and Lin Hui (F). Much to the joy of the public, the two have recently been observed mating and it is hoped that cubs will be produced from the union.

There are no pandas any more in London, Madrid, or Paris, although Madrid is exploring the possibility of obtaining pandas in the future.

On July 9, 2005, a male Giant Panda cub was born at the National Zoo to mother Mei Xiang and father Tian Tian through artificial insemination; it was the first surviving cub birth in the zoo's history. For the first time in the nation's history, a public vote chose this panda's name. Following Chinese tradition, his name Tai Shan (tie-SHON) was announced when he turned 100 days old.

A female cub, Su Lin, was born on August 2, 2005, to the female Bai Yun and male Gao Gao at the San Diego Zoo. Her name was also chosen by a public online poll. Bai Yun's two previous cubs were the first two Giant Pandas to survive past infancy in the United States (the first surviving cubs in North America were bred in the Chapultepec Zoo). The first, a female named Hua Mei, was fathered by Shi Shi via artificial insemination and was born on August 21, 1999. She returned to China in February 2004, where she has already given birth to 2 sets of twins, males in 2004 (named Hua Ling and Mei Ling) and one male/one female in 2005. Both sets of twins are doing fine to date. Bai Yun's second cub, a male named Mei Sheng, was the product of natural mating with Gao Gao and was born on August 19, 2003. Su Lin was also fathered by Gao Gao via natural mating.

A 2006 New York Times article outlined the economics of keeping pandas, which costs five times more than that of the next most expensive animal, an elephant. American zoos must pay the Chinese government $2 million a year in fees, part of what is typically a ten-year contract. San Diego's contract with China is the first to expire, in 2008. The last contract, in Memphis, ends in 2013.

Pandas in popular culture

Pandas are a popular animal in eastern and western culture. Pandas have often appeared in television programs, cartoons, and picture-books, while their images have graced all manner of consumer products.

• Panda Express is the name of an American fast food chain which serves American Chinese cuisine. The chain's logo features a chubby, stylized panda.

• In the webcomic PvP a Giant Panda attacks a character, Brent, in what has become one of the longest running jokes in the comic.

• In the webcomic The Suburban Jungle, Yin the Panda is the main character's housemate.

• In " Homer vs. Dignity," an episode of The Simpsons, Homer dresses as a panda for Mr. Burns' pleasure and is subsequently violated by a male panda at Springfield Zoo. In addition, Moe briefly runs a panda-smuggling operation from the back room of the bar. In a later episode, on a trip to China, Homer attempts to steal a panda cub, and is attacked by the mother.

• In the popular anime/ manga series Ranma ½, Ranma's father Genma Saotome suffers of a curse: he transforms into a Giant Panda when soaked in cold water, but can be reverted to his human form with hot water. When he is in his panda form, he expresses himself writing on a wooden board, due to his inability to speak.

• In the movie Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy the news team follow the story of a Giant Panda's pregnancy.

• In the popular manga Gantz one of the recent additions to the alien-hunting cast is a baby panda named Hoi Hoi.

• In a chapter of the manga Great Teacher Onizuka, main character Onizuka witnesses corrupt police officer Saejima illegally importing Giant Pandas into Japan. Saejima tries to convince Onizuka that the pandas are really advanced robot toys.

• In an episode of South Park, a mascot named Sexual Harassment Panda inadvertently causes sexual harassment lawsuits to proliferate.

• Lynne Truss's book, Eats, Shoots and Leaves: The Zero Tolerance Approach to Punctuation, is a reference to a joke on poor punctuation:

A panda walks into a cafe and orders a sandwich. After the panda has eaten his meal, he takes out a gun and shoots several holes in the ceiling. As the panda begins to leave, the waiter cries out, "What was that for?" in regard to the shootings. The panda tosses a wildlife guide to the waiter. The waiter reads the guide, and it says, "Panda. Black-and-white mammal native to China. Eats, shoots and leaves."

• In the web comic Radioactive Panda a Giant Panda can be seen wearing goggles fixing machinery, miniature versions of which are used to power devices.

• In the popular series of Tekken action games on the Sony Playstation consoles there is a female panda character, a pet of the Xiaoyu character.

• The World Wildlife Fund logotype is a stylized panda.

• A panda named Jing Jing is one of the Friendlies, the mascots for the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing.

• One of the artists of Blizzard Entertainment, Samwise Didier, is a huge fan of the panda, leading Blizzard to incorporate pandas in the Warcraft universe as Pandaren. Players can find references to Pandaren in World of Warcraft as well as play a Pandaren Hero in Warcraft III: The Frozen Throne.

• The Giant Panda is the namesake and logo of Panda Energy International.

• The Tarepanda was one lazy panda popular in Japan.

• In one stage of the game We Love Katamari, the player can roll up various things in town to raise money to save red pandas (Red versions of the Giant Panda as opposed to the raccoon-like Red Pandas) from turning into reddish brown pandas.

• In the Fullmetal Alchemist manga, the side character Mei Chang has a tiny panda named Xiaomei/Shao Mei which copies Mei's actions when they are together. It has a tendency to bite people but considers Mei its master (and Alphonse Elric the ultimate lifeform).