Giant Panda (Ailuropoda melanoleuca) Fact Sheet: Summary

Describer (Date): David 1869

Kingdon: Animalia

Phylum: Chordata

Class: Mammalia

Order: Carnivora

Family: Ursidae

Sub-family: Ailuropodinae

Genus: Ailuropoda

Species: Ailuropoda melanoleuca

Body Length: 1,200-1,500 mm (4-5 ft)

Tail Length: 127 mm (5 in)

Weight: 75-160 kg (165-353 lbs)

Pelage: Thick & woolly; white with black eye patches, ears, legs and band across back (skin is pigmented).

Range: Restricted; found in 6 small areas of Sichuan,Gansu, and Shaanxi provinces of Southwest China.

Habitat: Old growth montane forests with dense bamboo stands.

IUCN Status
Vulnerable (2016 assessment)

CITES Appendix
Appendix I

Population Estimates: approximately 1,040 mature individuals; approximately 1,800-2,060 individuals total

Locomotion: Live on the ground but can climb trees well.

Activity Cycle: Active 14.2 hrs/day (dawn and dusk), with almost all of that time spent eating; do not hibernate.

Social Groups: Solitary except from March to May for breeding.

Communication: Scent-marking, vocalizations.

Diet: Over 99% bamboo shoots and roots; 1% opportunistic small rodents, carrion, other plants.

Predators:
Unattended young susceptible to yellow-throated martin, weasel and golden cat. Adults protected, poaching no longer a major threat.

Sexual Maturity: Similar for both sexes: 4.5-6.5 years.

Gestation: 84-184 days (variation due to delayed implantation).

Litter Size: 1 or 2 (very rarely 3). Usually only one is raised in wild.

Birth Weight: 85-140 grams (extremely low neonatal/maternal weight ratio).

Age at Weaning: Fully weaned at 18-24 months in wild.

Typical Life Expectancy:
Wild populations: not reported
Managed care: no AZA estimates

Feature Facts:

• Giant pandas belong to the bear family, but unlike other bears, pandas eat  mostly plants, bamboo in particular.
• Recent sequencing of the panda genome reveals that genes for tasting meat were lost in the last 4 million years as they evolved their vegetarian habits.
• Expected to need conservation interventions for the foreseeable future.
• Two pandas visited San Diego Zoo Wildlife Alliance in 1987-1988 for 200 days.
• In 1996 a 12-year breeding loan was begun with Male Shi Shi (wild-born in Sichuan) and female Bai Yun (born in the Wolong Conservation Center and raised by her mother) arriving on 9/10/96.
• Their first offspring, a female, Hua Mei, was born 8/21/99 via artificial insemination. Hua Mei returned to China in 2004 at the age of five. She gave birth to twins late that year.
• In 2012, Bai Yun gave birth to a son, Xiao Liwu at the San Diego Zoo.