The giant panda in Japan celebrates its 27th birthday. How much do you know about the national treasure panda?

According to the Japanese TBS News Network, on September 16, the giant panda "Dantan" celebrated its 27th birthday at the Prince Zoo in Kobe, Japan. This is equivalent to about 80 years old in human years. Because "Dantan" suffers from heart disease and needs treatment, normal visits have been suspended. Visitors said that although they could not see "Dantan", they came to the zoo to buy its related products and hoped that it would always be cute and full of energy.

(Photo source: Screenshot of a report from Japan's TBS News Network)

The cute pandas are indeed lovable. So, how much do you know about our "national treasure" - the giant panda?

Giant pandas’ past and present habitats

Around 8-9 million years ago, in the late Miocene, the proto-panda began to appear on Earth. Then, in the early Pleistocene, the subspecies of the giant panda began to appear, and its fossils were found in Guangxi and other places. In the middle and late Pleistocene, the giant panda reached its heyday, and the giant panda subspecies Ba's appeared and was widely distributed in 16 provinces and cities in my country, as well as in Vietnam and northern Myanmar abroad.

(Photo source: veer photo gallery)

According to ancient books and local chronicles, nearly 2,000 years ago, giant pandas were distributed in Hunan, Hubei and other provinces in my country. As the radius of human production activities continues to expand, the habitat of giant pandas has gradually decreased, and now they are only distributed in the high mountains and deep valleys on the southern slope of the Qinling Mountains in Shaanxi, southern Gansu and the northwest of the Sichuan Basin.

What kind of temper does this silly creature have?

The giant panda is a solitary creature, often living alone in dense bamboo groves, hence the nickname "the hermit of the bamboo forest". Only in the spring when flowers bloom, for the sake of love, will they break the chasm, chase each other, and fall in love and get married.

(Photo source: veer photo gallery)

They are good at climbing trees. This is their special skill for escaping enemies, basking in the sun, playing, and courting mates. Although giant pandas are fat, they are good at climbing trees. This is the instinct of their carnivorous ancestors, which helps them hunt for food and avoid enemies. From this point of view, the "silly" giant pandas are actually not stupid at all!

(Photo source: veer photo gallery)

Pandas love drinking water. Pandas often live near springs and have a drinking habit. Sometimes, they will travel long distances to distant valleys to drink water. Once they find a water source, they will lie down by the stream like a drunkard, drinking until they are too drunk to move. They can get drunk by drinking water, which is really something! Therefore, there is a saying that "pandas are drunk on water".

Why do pandas like to eat bamboo?

I believe many people have the same question as me:

After all, the word “bear” is in the name of the panda, so why does it like to eat bamboo so much?

In fact, giant pandas are carnivores, but 99% of their food is made up of more than 20 kinds of bamboo plants that grow in the mountains and valleys. Giant pandas living in the wild occasionally eat other plants, such as unawned wheat, corn, horsetail, green grass, polypore mushrooms, wild angelica, notopterygium, young fir bark, etc. When there is nothing to eat, they will also pick up animal carcasses or catch smaller animals for food.

(Photo source: veer photo gallery)

It is still a mystery why giant pandas choose to live a bamboo-eating lifestyle. From an ecological perspective, the specialized diet of giant pandas indicates a narrow ecological niche, and they avoid competition by compressing the ecological niche (the width of their food). Giant pandas have survived to this day by relying on food that is most widely distributed in the northern temperate zone, which is low in nutrition but abundant and stable in reserves.

As the seasons change, the types and parts of bamboo in the giant pandas' diet also vary. Their favorite is bamboo shoots. Every year from spring to autumn, in order to eat bamboo shoots at different altitudes, the giant pandas migrate from the middle mountains to the high mountains. This is called "chasing bamboo shoots." Look, this is what it means to "cross mountains and ridges" for delicious food!

(Photo source: veer photo gallery)

Here’s a little-known fact: pandas spend 54.86% of their day foraging for food, 43.06% resting, and 2.08% playing.

This is also because bamboo has low energy. In order to reduce energy consumption as much as possible, giant pandas spend most of their day foraging and resting. After eating and drinking enough, they take a good sleep and climb high branches, which are safe and cool. Sometimes they are "sleepy and have no choice of bed", so they take a nap on the lawn, snow, rocks... and continue to forage.

Eat and sleep, sleep and eat, what a carefree life!

Conclusion

The survival and development of giant pandas concern hundreds of millions of people. People admire that it has survived millions of years, but they are also worried about its future. In order to save and protect the giant panda, a national treasure of my country that is loved and concerned by people all over the world, the Chinese government has taken a series of effective measures to effectively protect giant pandas and other precious animals from human harm.

On May 7, 2022, at a press conference held by the State Council Information Office, relevant personnel stated that my country has established a relatively complete system of nature reserves, large areas of natural ecosystems have been systematically and completely protected, and the ecological environment of wildlife has been effectively improved. The wild population of giant pandas has reached more than 1,800, and the threat level has been reduced from endangered to vulnerable.

We are delighted to see that the trend of the decline in the number of wild protected giant panda populations has been basically curbed, which is a sign that China's overall ecology has improved. But this does not mean that the work is done. We must be prepared for danger in times of peace and persevere in protecting giant pandas and other endangered animals, so that the ecology can continue to improve and build a better home!

Produced by: Science Popularization China

Author: Life Pulse

Producer: China Science Expo