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| By Melissa |
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| The panda is a black and white, furry, endangered mammal. Pandas have lots of foreign names; one of them is " Beishung ", a Chinese word meaning " white bear." The panda's hearing and sense of smell works fairly well, but its eyesight does not work as well. The panda's furry coat fits its cool climate and its damp home, in the mountains. The panda's coat is also very thick and oily!!! When a panda is fully-grown, it weighs about 265 pounds!! The Giant Panda is five to six feet tall. The Giant Panda has a chubby body and a short stubby tail. |
| The Giant Panda's name does not make any sense at all, because it is not a "giant" at all. The Giant Panda is a very rare type of panda. Some people think that pandas are cute, but they are not simply cute. The Giant Panda is only three feet from the top of its back to the ground. It would take more than 30 Giant Pandas to tip the scale with just one elephant!! The panda's coat keeps it warm through any type of weather. In one day, the panda may only cover one football field (100 yards). The panda is an Asian mammal. |
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| Bamboo is 90% water, and is not very healthy for pandas. Bamboo is a very tough plant!! Pandas find bamboo, a type of woody grass, very tasty. Most people do not grow to be as tall as bamboo stalks. Bamboo stalks are sometimes used to make furniture. Central China is where the bamboo forests are. There are at least three to four different types of bamboo trees. Ninety - nine percent of the panda's diet is bamboo!!!! |
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| Pandas dearly love water. Pandas may drink water until their stomachs are definitely full. Pandas do not like to meet other animals or people. Pandas also like leaves of the bamboo trees. |
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| Pandas cannot digest cellulose, the main constituent of all plant tissues and fibers. It takes a few seconds for a panda to chew and eat a whole bamboo stick. The panda can chew through a bamboo stem four centimeters thick!! Sometimes we eat bamboo just like pandas do. Pandas will eat any type of bamboo. The panda has a reputation for stealing sweet honey from a village of beehives. Pandas have a sweet tooth for sweet honey. Sometimes the panda must eat meat, so it eats the leftovers from the leopard's prey, since the panda is not a good hunter. A panda could not survive without bamboo. Mealtime is anytime for a panda!!! When food is scarce, a panda munches on vines. Pandas eat 10 to 15 kilograms of bamboo!!! Pandas spend a lot of time eating, anywhere from 10 to 16 hours. Pandas sit up when they are eating. |
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| The panda's jaws are very strong. Pandas have six fingers, including their thumb. Without a thumb, the panda could not eat! |
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| About three million years ago, the first Giant Panda was found in a fossil!! In 1869, Pere David was the first European to find the panda. The panda was a mystery until the 1920's. The first panda in North America came over in 1936. |
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| Millions of people travel to see these mammals at the limited zoos where they are kept. Pandas were amazing animals until their life became full of secrets. Pandas are one of the world's most popular animals. Few zoos have the Giant Panda on display. Everybody knows when he or she is looking at a panda. |
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| The panda lives in a dense bamboo forest. Sitting by a tree in the dark green forest is what the panda does. The panda lives in China near Tibet. Pandas live in bamboo forests high in the mountains where it is cool. Pandas do not live alone in the forest. The other animals in the forest are deer; leopards; monkeys, and the Lesser Panda. Bamboo is also not the only tree that grows there. There are: evergreen trees; dragon spruces; spider pines; firs, and hemlocks. The forest has a cool damp climate. The forest is 7,000 to 10,000 feet wide. Giant pandas live a lonely life. Chinese farmers live near pandas. They have amazing stories about them! Pandas are restricted from forest areas in some places. Forest areas in Central China contain bamboo, on which the panda mainly subsists. |
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| Pandas leave messages for other animals. One of the messages is clawing the tree bark to tell the other animals that the "Panda is at home." Another message is using the panda's special odor to tell the other animals the panda's territories. |
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| Pandas spend most of their time on the ground. Climbing trees is one of the panda's shelters. Sometimes pandas will do funny things, such as sliding down a hill on its stomach. Pandas are so lazy, yet sometimes so playful, that they are amusing to watch. Sometimes they will stop in the middle of the somersault and stay there for awhile! |
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| Pandas are very lazy mammals. Pandas will sometimes plop down wherever they are to take a nap. Pandas take it easy sometimes. |
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| Newborns are usually born during August and September. Babies are born blind and hairless. Baby pandas are tiny, naked, and completely helpless at birth, but they grow quickly. Newborns cannot eat for ten days. When a baby panda is ten weeks old, it has a black and white coat, its eyes are open, and it will soon be ready to take its first steps. Baby pandas snuggle against their mother and her warm body while feeding. The panda mother carries her baby by its neck. Babies weigh no more than an apple. The panda mother strokes her baby with her large paw. The mother will be busy through the middle months of the baby's life. Babies can entertain themselves. |
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| Spring is the time to mate. The mom and the dad find each other by calling. The male leaves after mating. The Giant Panda is a solitary animal except when breeding. |
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| The Lesser Panda is a smaller relative of the Giant Panda. Another name for the Lesser Panda is the Red Panda. The Red Panda is soft, thick, and has a chestnut - colored coat. It lives in the Himalayan Mountains in the bamboo forests. The Red Panda has a freer way of living than the Giant Panda. It is a Red Raccoon. The Lesser Panda has a raccoon like mask and rings on its bushy tail. The Giant Panda and the Lesser Panda are very close cousins. The Red Pandas usually mate during January and February. The Lesser Panda is from the Himalayas and Eastern Asia. Another name for the Red Panda is the Perh. The Lesser and Giant Panda are both a part of the raccoon family, as some scientists say. |
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| Scientists spend a lot of time trying to figure out the Panda family. Some scientists think that the Giant Panda is part of the bear family. Other scientists think that the Lesser and Giant Panda should be their own family. The panda's order is Carnivora. The panda's family is the Procyonid. The panda's species is the Ailuropoda melanoleuca. The panda bear used to be apart of the Raccoon family but is now apart of the Bear family. |
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