Giant pandas were once hunted by the Chinese, who believed their pelts provided magical protection against evil spirits, but hunting now carries strict penalties in China, so is less of a conservation issue now. Humans and destruction of habitat now pose the biggest threat to giant pandas.
This includes erosion of habitat due to clearing of areas for crop cultivation, and natural die-back of bamboo. The presence of built up areas prevent giant pandas from moving to new areas, so loss of bamboo forests mean many will starve. Giant pandas are strong with powerful jaws and teeth so few animals will risk attacking them. However, young giant pandas are more venerable and thus at risk from predators, including jackals, snow leopards, and yellow throated martens.
Giant panda conservation is high priority, and consequently many measures have been put in place to help increase the numbers. Scientists around the world are studying their ecology and behaviour and instituting conservation programs. An example is the panda reserve system which was established as part The National Conservation Project for the Giant Panda and its Habitat of Today there are around 67 reserves. Human interaction within reserves is minimised, and infrastructure is limited as is removal of trees and thus giant panda habitat.
The creation of bamboo corridors between built up areas also gives giant pandas more freedom and enables them to move between habitats to find food and mates. Facebook Twitter Instagram. Animal A-Z. Next ». Registered charity no. But for the sake of accuracy, the logical next question is do giant pandas hibernate? Well, surprisingly, the short answer is — no. Giant pandas do not hibernate. In the simple terms, hibernation is basically a long sleep that an animal undergoes during the winter in order to save energy and survive.
At that time, their temperature goes down tremendously so does their heart rate and breathing pace to use even less energy. Now, back to our non-hibernating bear; the panda. Pandas diet consists of 99 percent bamboo. Bamboo is a tough, extremely fibrous plant that consists of 0 percent fat. This means that pandas diet is almost completely fat free. As a result, they never store enough fat to even think of hibernation.
Wild animal species largely struggle to find nourishment during the long, cold winter months. Some of them solve that problem by hibernating.
Remember that body fat apart from thick fur is the main thing that protects wild animals from the elements and pandas have very little fat. Because they are unable to go into hibernation, they developed a simple but effective strategy.
They just migrate. Once they are settled in, they just keep nibbling on the bamboo and wait for the cold season to end. Again, it is just the opposite. Giant panda bears really love their sleep. In fact they may even be the sleepiest of bears spending between 8 and 12 hours daily sleeping. But pandas don't take part in any kind of hibernation, even under the loosest definitions of the term.
It's not that they don't like sleep -- far from it. Giant pandas sleep for about eight to 12 hours a day. And it's not that their bodies can take the cold -- they actually have relatively little body fat with which to insulate themselves from low temperatures [source: Stone]. But, rather, when the weather gets tough, the pandas get going.
Instead of burrowing away at the first sign of uncomfortable temperatures, like many bears do, giant pandas simply find a more comfortable place to relax and eat bamboo.
Living near mountains conveniently allows giant pandas to find refuge in more comfortable temperatures. In the summer, giant pandas like to seek out cooler temperatures at high elevations. Though typically they live at around 9, feet 2, And, when cold seasons ensue, they'll head back down to warmer elevations, sometimes about 4, feet 1, m , if necessary.
Bear or not, there's more at work behind a giant panda's preference to migrate rather than snooze away the winter. It turns out that the giant panda's peculiar diet excludes the possibility of hibernation.
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