Biography of a giant panda. Giant panda or bamboo bear

The world became aware of the big and small panda only at the end of the nineteenth century, despite the fact that they are very ancient and rare animals. From the moment of discovery, the study of these interesting and unusual animals began. But after two centuries of constant research, much about these mammals still remains a mystery. Scientists cannot come to a common opinion about the class of these animals. This problem is further aggravated by the fact that these two types have many differences between them. Therefore, nowadays one can hear large number discussions on the topic: “Is a panda a bear or a raccoon?”

Description of the large “bamboo bear”

This type of animal is usually classified as a class of mammals, an order of carnivores, a family of raccoons and a subfamily of pandas. But not so long ago, the Australian researcher E. Tennius carried out a series of analyzes of a morphological, cardiological, ethological and biochemical nature. Based on the results, the scientist found that out of sixteen characteristics, five of the giant panda are a raccoon, and the remaining twelve are characteristic only of it alone.

If we consider the appearance of this animal, then the giant panda is undoubtedly more similar to bears, because it is not without reason that it is also called “bamboo bear.” She has a massive body that is completely covered with thick fur. Its length varies from 1.1 to 1.9 meters, and its weight ranges from 75 to 140 kilograms. The thick and short legs of this animal end in massive paws with large claws.

If you look closely at the sole, you can see that on it and near each toe there are peculiar pads that serve the animal to hold smooth and slippery bamboo stems.

Unlike a bear, this animal has a tail, the length of which reaches 13 cm, and teeth with a different structure. On the panda's premolars you can see protrusions and tubercles that are not found in any other species of bear, and its head is massive and blunt-faced, with large erect ears.

The description of this species of panda says that it has a white color with characteristic black spots near its eyes, black legs and a tail of the same color. And although she looks like a bear, some features of her anatomy have forced scientists to doubt this. In their opinion, the panda is a representative of the raccoon family, and some even identified it as a special class of mammals.

What does the small species of these interesting animals look like?

This species, according to scientists, belongs to the raccoons, since it has the same tail with striped colors, a similar muzzle, as well as the shape of the skull and the structure of the teeth. Although its discoverers were inclined to believe that red panda- This is generally a cat with a fiery red color. This animal also has two subspecies - Western and Chinese.

This animal, unlike its larger relatives, has a body whose length reaches a maximum of 67 cm, with a tail up to 47 cm and a weight not exceeding 6 kg. Therefore, if you answer the question: “Is a panda a bear or not?”, then we can safely say that the small species of these animals with a red color is more related to raccoons than to bears.

Spreading

Giant pandas live in the mountains in the heart of China. The regions of Sichuan and Tibet are considered their home. Their entire life is spent in forests where mainly bamboo grows; they are located at an altitude of 1500-4600 m above sea level. This area has fairly moderate climatic conditions and all seasons of the year are pronounced. In addition, these animals live in many centers and zoos, where they continue to be studied and researched. In captivity, their lifespan reaches 27 years, and in the wild it is even shorter.

It lives in China, Nepal, Bhutan and Myanmar. She lives, like her large relative, in the mountains at an altitude of 4800 m. This small animal inhabits the forests of Assam, as well as the provinces of Sichuan and Yunnan. This animal lives in 86 other zoos around the world.

Despite the fact that the large and small species differ significantly from each other in appearance and scientists believe that one panda is a bear, and the other is a raccoon, they lead the same lifestyle.

Behavior

These animals mostly live alone. The only exceptions can be considered the mating season and the time of raising their cubs. Mature individuals live in a territory whose area is about five square meters, which is much less than that of bears. In order to indicate their presence, they can use marks with a specific odor.

Giant panda, unlike the small one, is active at any time of the day or night. Its red relative is nocturnal, and during daylight hours it sleeps in the treetops, curled up in a ball and resting its head on its large striped tail.

Nutrition

Numerous and dense thickets of bamboo are food for both the giant and the red panda. Thirty species of this plant make up approximately 99 percent of their diet. They also willingly eat all kinds of berries, fruits, seeds and acorns. Sometimes they can even hunt small birds, reptiles and rodents.

In captivity, they are fed the same bamboo, as well as biscuits and insect larvae. The panda is one of the few animals that can eat food in any position of its body, even lying down.

Reproduction

Individuals of the two species reach sexual maturity closer to five years, and begin to mate only at seven. Females during their mating season, which ranges from two days to a week, make loud sounds and actively emit a specific odor.

After this, pregnancy occurs, which lasts for these animals for an average of five months. Usually one or two naked cubs are born with a body weight of no more than 200 grams and a length of 14 to 16 cm, just like brown bears. Although scientists have not yet come to a clear conclusion about whether a panda is a bear or not, the reproduction process of these two animals is similar.

Offspring

At birth, their cubs, like all varieties of bears, are helpless and blind. The female raises her little puppies herself and treats them very carefully and with special care. For several days after their birth, she does not leave the hole for a minute, even to eat or drink. The mother puts her cubs to her breast fifteen times a day, and one feeding can last about half an hour.

A panda most often gives birth to twins, but after some time the female chooses the strongest baby from them and continues to take care of him, and the second one, accordingly, dies unattended. The lactation period for these animals lasts approximately 45 weeks, and the cubs remain with their mothers until they reach three years of age.

It turns out that for the first time, when scientists conducted research on a large species of these animals, they could not understand for a long time who the panda was and what kind of animal it was. A little later they came to the conclusion that she was a raccoon, but only of enormous size.

After some time, other experts refuted this opinion, since with the help of a genetic test it was possible to establish that this species of animal is more related to bears.

As for red pandas, many scientists generally recorded them as a marten-like species, which also consists of raccoons and skunks.

Although, according to most researchers, these two subspecies belong to different classes However, they also have certain similarities with each other. For example, both pandas have a sixth "pseudo-toe" located on their front paws. It is significantly larger than the other five. This part of the body is actually a carpal bone covered with skin. This structure helps animals better hold onto bamboo plants.

Conservation status

Unfortunately, pandas are on the verge of complete extinction, therefore they are listed in the International Red Book. This happens for many reasons. A live red panda is not as interesting to people as its fur. Because of this, she was constantly hunted, especially in Nepal. But recently, the numbers of this species have begun to gradually recover.

Giant pandas are also protected by law, according to which the extermination of this animal will be punishable by death or life in prison.

Although this animal was discovered several centuries ago, and in 1912 even became the national treasure of the People's Republic of China (according to the legislation of this Republic), scientists still cannot come to a definite conclusion about whether a panda is a bear or a raccoon. Therefore, research on this animal continues to this day.

Titles: Giant panda, giant panda, Tibetan mountain bear, bamboo bear.

Area: The giant panda is found only in the mountain forests of several western provinces of China (Sichuan, Gansu, Tibet). Previously, it also lived in mountain bamboo forests in Indochina and on the island of Kalimantan. The total range covers 29,500 km 2, but only 5,900 km 2 is the panda's habitat.

Description: The panda's body is massive, covered with thick fur. The legs are short and thick, with wide paws armed with strong claws. On the soles and at the base of each toe, bare pads are well developed, making it easier to hold the smooth bamboo stems while eating. Her feet, rounded and hairy at the bottom, are short and do not fully rest on the ground when walking. The giant panda's head is massive, blunt-faced, with big ears. The panda is distinguished from bears by its rather long (12 cm) tail and teeth structure. Of the 40 teeth, there are four false and two true molars at the top, and three false and three true molars at the bottom. The molars and premolars are wider and flatter than those of other bears, and they have developed extensive cusps and projections for grinding the tough bamboo when eating.
Despite its external resemblance to a bear, the anatomy of the giant panda is so unusual that the panda was placed either in the raccoon family, then in the bear family, or in its own special family. This is a bear-like animal for a long time considered a "giant raccoon" due to common anatomical features with the red panda (which was considered a raccoon without question). However, ordinary Chinese peasants, who have long called the big panda a “polar bear” (literally - bei-shuang) or “bamboo bear,” turned out to be closer to the truth than taxonomists, who only recently realized that the big panda is still a bear.
Australian paleontologist E. Tennius, based on an analysis of the morphology, biochemistry, cardiology and ethology of the giant panda, showed that in 16 characteristics it is close to bears and only in five - to the red panda and other raccoons, and 12 characteristics are characteristic only of it alone. Tennius believed that the giant panda deserved to be allocated to a special family of pandas ( Ailuropodidae), which was proposed by R. Pokcock in 1921.
Molecular biological and cardiological studies of the giant panda, conducted by a group of American researchers, led to the conclusion that in the process of evolution, the branch of the giant panda separated from the line of development of bears about 25-18 million years ago - in the first half of the Miocene. Some common peculiar characteristics of the big and small pandas, apparently, are explained not by their common origin, but by the parallel preservation of ancestral characteristics in the same natural conditions Southeast Asia.

Color: The main color background of a giant panda is white. There are characteristic black spots ("spectacles") around the eyes. The legs are black, while the black coloring of the forelimbs merges with a wide “yoke” of the same color that encircles the body over the shoulders. The ends of the ears and the tip of the tail are also black.
There is an ancient Chinese history about how giant pandas got their unique coloring. A young girl who was a friend of these bears died and the pandas were heartbroken. They cried at the funeral and constantly rubbed their eyes with their paws. Thus, dark color their paw was moved to their eyes. The bears then hugged themselves out of grief and marked their ears, shoulders, and hind legs with black and colored themselves the way we see them today.

Size: The length of a giant panda reaches 1.2-1.8 m, on average - 1.65 m. Tail length - about 12 cm. Shoulder height - 65-70 cm.

Weight: From 70 to 125 kg, rarely up to 160 kg (average - 102.50 kg). Males weigh about 10 percent more than females (males weigh 85-125 kg, females 70-100 kg).

Lifespan: Maximum lifespan in captivity is 26 years. Life expectancy in nature is not precisely known, but appears to be approximately 14 years, with a maximum of 20 years.

Pandas are usually silent animals that prefer silence. But they seem to be able to bleat, making a sound similar to that produced by lambs or kids. This is a friendly sound, a greeting. When an animal is irritated, it can roar (though not at all like bears) or buzz. Panda puppies often whine and squeal. Pandas also vocalize actively during social interactions. They "chirp" during mating and buzz in distress. A squeal indicates submission or pain. “Chomping” (quickly opening and closing the mouth so that the teeth are expressively shown to the partner) is a soft defensive threat.

Habitat: Giant pandas live in dense impenetrable bamboo forests at an altitude of 1200 to 4500 m above sea level, in very temperate climate with a pronounced change of seasons. Dense thickets of bamboo, reaching a height of 3-4 meters, provide the panda with shelter and food supplies. Throughout the year, these forests, often shrouded in heavy clouds, are characterized by heavy rain or dense haze.

Enemies: Today the giant panda does not have natural enemies, but in the past there may have been, such as tigers. The biggest threat to the panda's survival right now is the loss and degradation of its habitat.

Food: Giant pandas are carnivores, but they have had to adapt to living and eating mostly on 30 species of bamboo (over 99% of their diet). The panda has become a narrow vegetarian and feeds on succulent young shoots and old stems, up to 13 mm in diameter, and even bamboo roots, using its powerful jaws and strong teeth to crush tough, fibrous bamboo.
The walls of the stomach are extremely muscular. The panda's esophagus and stomach are lined with layers of elastic mucous tissue to protect against bamboo slivers. Monotonous food has little nutritional value and is difficult to digest, and therefore the panda is forced to chew almost all its waking hours (which is 10-12 hours a day), moving through the bamboo thicket. To get enough nutrition they are forced to eat from 12 to 18 kg of bamboo per day. When digesting bamboo, they use an average of only 17% dry matter. Therefore, giant pandas have an extremely strict energy budget for their body. They travel little and usually only when they have depleted nearby food resources.
Bamboo - most interesting plant! Many types of bamboo grow incredibly fast - the culm of Japanese bamboo grows almost 1.2 m in a day! Bamboo, grown from seed, grows for many years to reach full size and maturity, gradually growing into an entire grove. Then the bamboo blooms and, having given seeds, dies, i.e. the whole grove is dying! At least 2-3 years are required for new shoots to form from the seed. So for all the animals who depend on bamboo: giant pandas, red pandas and humans - flower-decorated bamboo predicts deprivation for several years. Thus, the flowering of monocarpic bamboo species that began in the 70s of the 20th century and their death over large areas deprived pandas of food in a number of places and, as a result, between 1974 and 1976, 138 pandas died.
In addition to bamboo, giant pandas eat bulbs (such as iris and saffron), grasses, and sometimes insects, carrion, eggs, small rodents and other animals that they can catch.
In nature, giant pandas get most of their water from bamboo, which on average is half water. Young bamboo shoots are almost 90% water. But pandas need more water than bamboo can provide. So pandas drink almost every day fresh water from rivers and streams.
In zoos, giant pandas eat bamboo, sugar cane, thin rice porridge, special fiber-rich biscuits, carrots, apples and sweet potato(sweet potato).

Behavior: The giant panda lived in bamboo forests for several million years. It is an extremely specialized animal, with unique adaptations associated with eating bamboo. The panda holds the stems in its paw with the help of a “claw” - the “sixth” finger, opposed to the rest (in fact, it is not a finger, but an outgrowth of one of the metacarpal bones). This adaptation allows for easy and dexterous manipulation of the resilient bamboo stems. Pandas are also known for their upright feeding posture, which resembles a person sitting on the floor and which leaves their front paws free to better handle food.
They are active at any time of the day or night. Pandas do not hide in trees and do not make a permanent den, but in bad weather they sometimes take refuge in hollow trees, rock crevices and caves. Giant pandas are primarily terrestrial animals, although they are good climbers and capable swimmers. IN cold period The panda is inactive; in snowy winters it sometimes falls into a short time in a kind of hibernation, but unlike other bears, she does not sleep in winter. However, during the winter it descends down the slopes (usually no lower than 800 m) to reach areas with sufficiently moderate and comfortable temperatures.
Many people find this animal not only attractive, but also a gentle, harmless animal, but in reality, giant pandas can be just as dangerous as any other bear. Thanks to her increased caution and secretive lifestyle, it is only occasionally possible to get a panda for the zoo, and even in the largest zoos in the world they are very rare, as indeed in their homeland.

Social structure: Mainly solitary except during mating and raising offspring. Giant pandas occupy a territory of 3.9-6.4 km2 (males have larger areas than females), which is much smaller than that of other bear species. In this case, the territories of males partially cover the territories of females. At the same time, territoriality in males is weakly expressed, while females vigorously defend their territory.

Reproduction: Giant pandas are characterized by a promiscuous mating system, with males competing for access to more than one adult female. When females are ready to mate, they increase scent marking activity and become more vocal. Males also compete with each other for access to a female who is ready to mate and conceive. The period when conception can occur is quite short and does not exceed 2-7 days.
The development of the embryo usually occurs with a delay in development; this period of rest can last from 1.5 to 4 months. Thanks to this, young people are born in the most favorable time. climatic conditions time of year.

Breeding season/period: Spring (March to May). Young pandas are born the following winter, usually in January, according to other sources - in August-September.

Puberty: In the wild, pandas do not reach sexual maturity until they are at least 4.5 years old, but they actually begin breeding at around 7.5 years of age. In captivity, both sexes usually reach maturity earlier, at 5.5 or 6.5 years of age

Pregnancy: Ranges from 84-97 to 164-181 days, with an average of about 135 days.

Offspring: Usually 1-2, rarely 3 naked cubs are born, each weighing only 100-200 g and 15 - 17 cm long. Immediately after birth, the mother helps the helpless cub reach the nipple.
At birth, giant panda cubs, like all other bears, are blind and helpless, but unlike most bears, they are covered with a thin layer of fur.
The mother panda treats her little puppy very carefully, which she usually rocks in one paw like a cradle, hugging him closely to her chest. For several days after birth, the mother does not leave the den, not even leaving to eat or drink! The female breastfeeds the cub up to 14 times a day, and the duration of each feeding reaches 30 minutes.
Despite the fact that females often give birth to twins, soon after giving birth the mother chooses one, stronger baby, and the second, unattended, soon dies. Therefore, in zoos, keepers leave only one baby near the female, replacing him with another every few days. Thus, it is possible to feed both babies with nutritious mother's milk.
The cubs' eyes open at 3 weeks of age. Lactation lasts about 46 weeks.
Cubs stay with their mothers for one and a half to three years, so the interval between births is therefore usually 2 years. Mothers often play with their puppies.

Benefit/harm for humans: The panda population is closely related to bamboo abundance. Pandas were persecuted for their fur, which is highly prized (in Japan, the price of one skin reaches $176,000). Until recently, panda fur was used to make very valuable sleeping mats, as it was believed to have supernatural properties that help predict the future through dreams.
Sometimes pandas die when they fall into musk deer traps set by poachers.

Population/Conservation Status: The giant panda is in International Red List of IUCN and is one of the rarest, poorly studied large animals, which is facilitated by a secretive lifestyle. It became known only in the middle of the 19th century, and naturalists first observed a living panda in nature only in 1913. In China, the giant panda is declared a national treasure. Therefore, in 1995, a Chinese farmer who shot a giant panda and tried to sell its skin was sentenced to life imprisonment.
A census conducted in 2004 estimated that the wild giant panda population included approximately 1,600 animals. About 140 pandas live in zoos. It breeds rarely in captivity and mostly in China.
The density of pandas within the 6000 km 2 of Chinese panda reserves averaged one live per 9.3-10.7 km 2 .

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Where do pandas live? Surely many will answer: of course, in China. But China huge country, but seeing a panda there is far from easy.

The places where pandas live are primarily due to the fact that pandas, although classified as predators, are actually herbivores. In addition, they do not eat any plant food, but only one plant - bamboo.

Of the several hundred types of bamboo, the panda consumes only a few, which grow exactly where pandas live.

A very rare animal that many people have never seen with their own eyes, except perhaps on a TV screen or on the Internet. And this is not surprising, because there are now just over one and a half thousand pandas left on earth, and for most it is simply impossible to get to those places where pandas live in natural conditions. While other rare animals can be seen in zoos, you can only see the panda in a few, the largest zoos in the world. And all this is due to the fact that the panda is not an ordinary animal, it is a predator that eats bamboo and does not recognize other food. For unknown reasons, many centuries ago pandas switched to plant foods. Why exactly bamboo is difficult to answer, but most likely it was bamboo that was more accessible to pandas in their places of residence. And although bamboo subtropical plant, found on many continents, it was in southeast Asia that it received greatest distribution and these are exactly the places where pandas live.

The giant panda is a fairly large animal, growing up to 150 kg. Although in appearance it resembles a real bear, being a herbivore, in general it is a rather peaceful animal. For this reason, the panda is very careful and chooses hard-to-reach places to live. But the panda constantly needs a lot of food, and since its main food is bamboo, the giant panda’s permanent habitat is bamboo forests on the slopes of the mountains. One of the most extensive areas where bamboo grows is the Tibet-Qinghai Plateau in southwest China. These are the provinces of China: Qinghai, Sichuan, Yunnan, Gansu, Shaanxi, Chongqing, Guizhou and part of Tibetan autonomous region. These places were chosen by these bamboo bears and lived here for hundreds and thousands of years. This region central China with large areas of bamboo forests, it has become the only habitat of the giant panda in the world.

China's population is constantly growing, and at such a pace that the Chinese need new territories. Over the past half century, the population has increased so much that these inaccessible regions where pandas live have begun to be developed. More or less flat areas in these provinces began to be cleared, bamboo forests were cut down, and the freed land was turned into fields, towns and cities; forests in mountainous areas were cut down. In China, bamboo has long been used as a material for construction, furniture and household utensils, which were used mainly by local residents. In places where bamboo grows, work was constantly carried out to harvest bamboo and, despite the fact that bamboo grows very quickly, bamboo forests did not have time to recover and their areas were catastrophically reduced. And for a normal existence, only one pair of pandas needs an area of ​​​​about three thousand hectares of bamboo forest.

With the advent of nanotechnology, new materials began to be produced from bamboo: bamboo laminate, finishing materials, filler, textiles, which have gained recognition all over the world as natural and non-allergic substitutes for the once popular synthetic ones. This increased the demand for bamboo, and a bamboo harvesting boom began in China. The bamboo thickets began to disappear before our eyes and the panda's living space began to shrink catastrophically. Pandas living in their natural environment began to move higher into the mountains and further from people, their numbers began to rapidly decrease.

To preserve the numbers of this rare animal, the Chinese government began to take effective measures. In 1998, a law was passed to stop deforestation and create nature reserves and national parks. True, this is not a single area, but consists of separate enclaves, and sometimes problems arise due to the fact that in some reserves there is a decrease in the growth of bamboo, and the pandas living there experience a lack of food, but nevertheless it produced results. The number of pandas began to increase, albeit gradually. In addition, protecting forests saves China's ecosystem from destruction. Thus, at the sources of the Yangtze River, one of the most important Chinese waterways, the quality of water has significantly increased, and the creation of eco-tourism has become a good source of income for the population living in the mountains, who previously made money from harvesting bamboo.

China is the only country in the world where the bamboo bear lives, its peculiar national symbol, along with the Great Wall of China. The black and white panda no longer lives in natural conditions in any country. And in China you can see a panda in almost only one place. After the earthquake in 2008 severely damaged the most large nature reserve Wolong pandas, in Sichuan province, the bulk of the pandas were transported to a research center for panda breeding, not far from Chengdu, the capital of Sichuan. Over time, this center in the Bifengxia area of ​​Ya'an town turned into the world's largest panda zoo.

This center has all the conditions for living and breeding of these animals. Pandas are not kept in enclosures, as is usually the case in zoos, but almost in natural conditions. large areas, on which special structures made of logs have been built, on which pandas can have fun. In the center there is special services: peculiar " kindergarten"for babies, hospital, laboratory, science center and a museum. Pandas are fed cut bamboo harvested from the mountains and various food additives. Today, this center is home to the largest population of pandas in the world.

Of course, you can see a panda live without traveling to China. Since the panda is a very interesting animal, people have long tried to catch them and keep them in zoos, although this was quite a difficult task. In 1959, there were only 7 pandas in zoos around the world, 5 of which were in Beijing Zoo and one each in Moscow Zoo and the Zoological Society of London Zoo. Now they are in many zoos around the world. For a large fee, according to some sources, a million dollars a year, the Chinese lease pandas to famous zoos: Schönbrunn Zoo in Austria; Atlanta Zoo in the USA; Adelaide Zoo in Australia; Madrid Zoo in Spain; Edinburgh Zoo in the UK; River Safari in Singapore; Memphis Zoo in the USA; Ocean Park in Hong Kong; San Diego Zoo in the USA; Smithsonian National Zoo in the USA; Berlin Zoo in Germany; a zoo in Chiang Mai in Thailand; Taipei Zoo in Taiwan; Ueno Zoo in Japan; Toronto Zoo, Canada; Beauval Zoo in France; Mexico City Zoo in Mexico; Shirahama amusement park in Japan.

There are no pandas in Russian zoos now, but in the fifties of the last century there were pandas in the Moscow Zoo. The first panda came to Russia in 1955. According to more reliable sources, it was a fairly young individual, a male, and at that time he weighed only 20 kg, that is, he was very young. According to customs in China, each panda has a name, ours was called Pin Pin. They created quite decent conditions for him, but there were problems with food. Bamboo does not grow in the Moscow region; it had to be delivered by plane from Abkhazia, so in addition to bamboo, he was accustomed to local food. Per day, Pin-Pin received: 500 bamboo shoots with leaves, 2 kg of oatmeal or rice porridge with milk, 2 eggs, 400 grams of fruit juice, 3-4 carrots, tea with sugar and birch or willow branches. Pin Pin lived until 1961 and died at the age of 6 years. Probably the reason early death there were improper living and feeding conditions, he ate a lot and moved little, in the spring of 1960 his weight reached 185 kilograms.

In 1959, they purchased another An-An panda and wanted to create a pair, but it turned out to be also a male. An An was also fed a little bamboo, but his main food was: porridge, fruits, vegetables, sweet tea, and instead of bamboo, birch, willow and linden brooms. Oddly enough, he got used to this food and grew quite normally. Its weight reached more than 150 kg, and it was about 1.5 meters in length. He lived until 1972 and died at the age of 15.

Zoologists have repeatedly tried to obtain offspring in captivity. And Chinese specialists have begun to succeed. They decided to do this in Europe as well. There was a female panda at the Zoological Society of London Zoo named Chi-Chi. In 1966, the leadership of the Zoological Society of London suggested that the Moscow Zoo try to connect the female Chi-Chi with the male An-An. The English panda was brought to Moscow by plane and tried to be brought together with An-An. But friendship did not work out. Moreover, both pandas showed great aggression towards each other, started real fights with each other, and had to be separated, sometimes even with the help of fire hoses and gun shots. Six months were fruitless and Chi-Chi was taken back to London. In 1968, they tried to repeat the experiment, this time An-An was taken to London, where he spent six months, but also to no avail, the pandas could not find a common language.

After this, Russians were able to see live pandas only in 2001, when, during the Beijing Culture Days in Moscow, two pandas were brought to the Moscow Zoo. For this purpose, a special agreement was concluded between the parties, which stipulated all aspects of the delivery and maintenance of pandas. They were accompanied by Chinese specialists, and insurance was taken out for a huge amount just in case. The pandas, four-year-old male Ben-Ben and nine-year-old female Wen-Wen, stayed at the Moscow Zoo for only two months. There were twice as many visitors to the Moscow Zoo these days as usual, and on Sunday it was almost impossible to get there at all. By the way, both pandas that visited Russia were born in the Beijing Zoo. Their names are also not arbitrary: the 9-year-old female panda Wen-Wen received her name in honor of the director of the zoo, Comrade Wen, and the male Ben-Ben, which means Bull in Chinese, was named so because he was born in the year of the Ox. They were kept in different enclosures.

Now a special pavilion “China” is being built at the Moscow Zoo, in which, as the press promises, black-and-white and red pandas from Chengdu will live. It has not yet been announced under what conditions the pandas will be transferred, but in any case, soon Muscovites and guests of the capital will be able to see these amazing animals with their own eyes.

It was a long time ago. A family of Chinese shepherds settled on the slope of a mountain. Every morning they took out a flock of sheep to graze near the bamboo thickets. And he came out of the forest little panda play with the sheep, because they were as white as he was. One day a huge leopard attacked a flock of sheep. The sheep ran away, and the panda could not run fast. And he would not have escaped death, but the young shepherdess was not at a loss and began to beat the leopard with a stick. She drove off the evil beast, but she herself received many wounds. And the brave shepherdess died. When the other pandas learned that the girl gave her life for their fellow panda, they began to cry bitterly and sprinkle themselves with ashes.

Crying, the pandas rubbed their eyes and covered their ears so as not to hear the echoes of universal grief. Consoling each other, they held their paws and sobbed. Since then, the snow-white skins of pandas have turned black, but not entirely, but only on the eyes, ears and paws.

A beautiful legend? Let's find out more about the panda...

Giant panda, giant panda, Tibetan mountain bear, bamboo bear.

pandas, common name two species of Asian mammals of the carnivorous order, somewhat similar to each other in appearance and lifestyle, but belonging to different families. The giant panda, or bamboo bear (Ailuropoda melanoleuca), reaches a length of 1.5 m, not counting the tail (another 12.5 cm), and a weight of 160 kg. The animal has a very characteristic pattern: black or dark brown ears, “glasses” around the eyes, nose, lips and limbs, including the shoulder “yoke”, and the rest of the body is white, sometimes with a reddish tint. This species is found in the Chinese provinces of Sichuan, Gansu and Shaanxi, where it lives in dense thickets of bamboo among coniferous forests on the edge of the Tibetan Plateau. Usually observed at altitudes of 2700–3900 m above sea level, although in winter it sometimes descends to 800 m above sea level. Since the second half of the 20th century, the panda has become something of a national emblem of China.

The giant panda feeds almost exclusively on bamboo, sometimes including other plants in its diet, such as irises and saffron, and even small mammals type of rodents. Usually the animal feeds in a sitting position for 10–12 hours a day, holding bamboo shoots with the “prethumbs” and the first two toes of the front paws, peeling the hard outer layer from the plants with its teeth, and then slowly chewing the peeled stem. This species is on the verge of extinction and is listed in the International Red Book.

According to existing estimates, in the mid-1990s there were no more than 1,000 of its individuals left in the wild. Although killing a giant panda carries the death penalty in China, poaching appears to be its main threat. Local peasants kill animals for their fur, and some individuals die in poachers’ traps set for musk deer.

Although poaching giant pandas was punishable by death by the late 1980s, the financial reward for selling a giant panda skin was so high (more than the lifetime income of the average peasant) that even the death penalty did not seem to be a deterrent: “Even though I risked my life, it was worth it,” this is a quote from a poacher caught by the police. - “If you hadn’t caught me, I would have been rich.” (Schaller 1993)

In 1995, a Chinese farmer who shot and killed a giant panda and tried to sell its skin was sentenced to life in prison. (Oryx 1995q).

Despite its external resemblance to a bear, the anatomy of the giant panda is so unusual that the panda was placed either in the raccoon family, then in the bear family, or in its own special family. This bear-like animal has long been considered a "giant raccoon" due to common anatomical features with the red panda (which was considered a raccoon without question). However, ordinary Chinese peasants, who have long called the big panda a “polar bear” (literally - bei-shuang) or “bamboo bear,” turned out to be closer to the truth than taxonomists, who only recently figured out that the big panda is still a bear.

Australian paleontologist E. Tennius, based on an analysis of the morphology, biochemistry, cardiology and ethology of the giant panda, showed that in 16 characteristics it is close to bears and only in five - to the red panda and other raccoons, and 12 characteristics are characteristic only of it alone. Tennius believed that the giant panda deserved to be allocated to a special family of pandas ( Ailuropodidae), which was proposed by R. Pokcock in 1921.

Molecular biological and cardiological studies of the giant panda, conducted by a group of American researchers, led to the conclusion that in the process of evolution, the branch of the giant panda separated from the line of development of bears about 25-18 million years ago - in the first half of the Miocene. Some common peculiar features of the big and small pandas are apparently explained not by their common origin, but by the parallel preservation of ancestral features in the same natural conditions of Southeast Asia.

The story of this non-bear is very interesting and even romantic. In the second half of the last century, an event occurred in the circles of zoologists and naturalists that alarmed even venerable scientists in many countries. An original colored skin of a large animal, similar at first glance to a bear, was delivered to the Natural History Museum in Paris. But when they spread it on the floor, they thought that it had been sewn by a skilled craftsman from large scraps of black and white animal fur. Mystery! The skin was thoroughly examined, turned over in the hands this way and that, but no traces of cutting and sewing, gluing or other fastening were found. What kind of skin is this? - the scientists thought. Maybe it belongs to an extinct animal? But some experts objected and believed that the fur on the skin was cleverly etched or dyed, but in reality it was a bear.

But who and where obtained and delivered this mystery skin to Paris? In 1869, French missionary Armand David traveled to China. In addition to your religious activities, he, being a naturalist, simultaneously collected information about the animal world of the country and acquired interesting exhibits. In one of the remote villages of Sichuan province, he discovered this strange skin on the fence of a house. David acquired it after local residents told him that it belonged to a real beast that lived in the vicinity of the village, high in the mountains among bamboo thickets. The name of the animal is “bei-shung,” which roughly translates to “white mountain bear.”

A. David managed to send the skin to Paris, and he continued the search for the owner of the skin. He was lucky. In the same year, he purchased a killed bei-shung from hunters, processed it and sent it to France with his hunting stories. This was 114 years ago. Having received the second skin and skeleton, scientists were able to draw conclusions. Due to its great external resemblance to an ordinary bear and the nature of its diet (A. David reported that bei-shungs feed mainly on bamboo), it was originally called a bamboo bear. However, having carefully studied the received materials, zoologists soon abandoned the hasty definition and, based on many morphological and anatomical features, classified the new animal as a member of the raccoon family and called it a giant panda. Big because earlier, in 1825, the red panda, an animal that lives in some areas of Asia, was added to the family.

In appearance, it differs sharply from the newly minted one, and the small and large pandas are listed in their family in various kinds. Years passed, but the original name of the giant panda - bamboo bear - turned out to be tenacious, and it is often used in everyday life, since the external resemblance to a bear is undeniable. I must admit that when I first saw a live giant panda during a trip to China, I was also amazed by its appearance. Well, just a polar bear in large horned glasses at an animal carnival, wearing a black vest, black gloves, stockings, and headphones. The discovery of an unusual beast, as usual, turned against him. Not only scientists, but also rare miners became interested in the panda hunting trophies, trappers and traders of wild animals. Many adventurers from Europe and the New World flocked to China.

But getting to the giant pandas' habitats was extremely difficult. On the way of the hunters stood high mountains, impassable roads, dense forests, impenetrable thickets of bamboo, numerous water obstacles, rock falls... With the help of local residents, the first giant panda was caught in 1916, but it quickly died. And only twenty years later, an American woman acquired a young panda and safely delivered her to the USA, to the city of San Francisco. Local hunters, as soon as they caught the animal, named it Su-Lin, which translated meant “a small piece of enormous value.” And this was true. The giant panda is the rarest animal in the world.

It is common only in Chinese People's Republic. Now inhabits mountain forests at an altitude of up to two thousand meters above sea level and higher in Sichuan province. Perhaps it has also been preserved in unexplored, hard-to-reach places in Gansu province and a number of regions of Tibet. The first born in captivity, Su-Lin (it was a female), was exhibited in a number of US zoos.

Some time later, after a long search, two adult pandas were again brought to the United States, and then several of these animals ended up in London. Until that time, there were no such animals in any of the zoos in the world. After the Second World War, the habitat areas of these rare animals were declared protected areas. Some research groups began to carefully study the Beishungs to find out whether it is possible to keep and breed bamboo bears in captivity. The expeditions were successful. In 1957, the giant panda first settled in our country, in a special house on the territory of the Moscow Zoo. It was a large male named Pin-Pin.

And in the summer of 1959, we managed to purchase a second copy, according to the plan, in pair with Pin-Pin. His name was An-An, but, unfortunately, he also turned out to be a male. So two handsome little boys lived with us in Moscow. In 1961, an Austrian merchant took a large group of African animals to China and exchanged them for a young female giant panda named Chi-Chi. With this zoological star, one of the prominent English zoologists named it so - the owner of Chi-Chi arrived in England, where he sold it to the London Zoological Society for huge money.

In 1966, the British suggested that we reunite the Moscow gentleman An-An with Chi-Chi. We agreed, and the overseas bride arrived from London to Moscow on a special flight. It was housed in a transport “carriage” made of plexiglass, non-ferrous metals and plastic. This extraordinary guest was met by zoological scientists, representatives of our government agencies, employees of the capital's zoo, employees of the British embassy and a great many correspondents. One of them said jokingly: “I often visit the capital’s international airport as part of my work, but I have never met a single prime minister like this.” And indeed, there was a lot of noise. Chi-Chi lived at the Moscow Zoo for six months, but did not become friends with AnyAny, and was sent back. In 1968, the experiment was repeated.

This time An-An flew to visit Chi-Chi. He lived in London for six months and also to no avail. But, as you know, every cloud has a silver lining: both meetings, although they did not give the desired result, helped us better understand the peculiarities of the biology of giant pandas. For example, no one suspected that animals that are good-natured in appearance and completely gentle in character can, under certain circumstances, be very aggressive. Sometimes fierce fights took place between our “informants”. It was necessary to separate them with fire hoses, blank shots from hunting rifles, and also use special pikes and shields made of thick plywood.

When attacking and defending, the animals showed great dexterity and techniques typical of predators: grabbing the enemy with their front paws, powerful blows to the enemy’s head with their paws, rapid ramming with their entire body weight, grabbing with their teeth, and so on. It turned out that these usually silent animals have very loud voices. The excited Chi-Chi whined, and then made such sharp trumpet sounds that the glass in the windows next door shook. She even mooed, just like a cow. During meetings, the gentleman bleated like a sheep, squealed, and at critical moments of the fight he trumpeted and mooed.

For a long time, nothing was known about the reproduction of giant pandas, but in September 1963, in the Beijing Zoo, a female named Li-Li gave birth to a baby whose weight was 142 grams. He grew very quickly and by the age of five months he had gained ten kilograms. The baby was named Min-Min, that is, “brilliant, sparkling.” For the first ten days after birth, the female did not let him go even while eating. She tossed the two-month-old cub from paw to paw, playing with it like a doll. At three months old, the shiny one began to move independently - the mother would fall asleep, and he would go for a walk, but she quickly woke up, instantly found her child and spanked him with her paw. In September 1964, the same female gave birth to a second baby, and scientists were able to determine that giant pandas carry their cubs for approximately 140 days.

Young pandas in captivity are very playful. They are good-natured, funny, move a lot, take the most unusual poses: - they can stand on their heads, helping themselves with their front paws, they tumble over their heads very well, they deftly climb grates and nets, ladders, ropes and poles . With their front paws they hold balls, enamel and aluminum bowls while waiting to be filled with food.

They treat people without any hostility, but when playing and fussing, they have no sense of restraint; they can accidentally grab them with their teeth, scratch them with the claws of their front paws and press them against the wall. But at the same time, they are well tamed and quickly remember the nicknames given to them. Having reached three or four years of age, giant pandas become slower, they are no longer so trusting of people, and they have to be handled with caution. The beast is not small. The shoulder height of adult animals is up to seventy, and the body length is up to one hundred and seventy centimeters. Solid and weighty. An adult male who lived in the Moscow Zoo reached 185 kilograms by the age of twelve, and he was not overfed; this is strictly monitored at the zoo.

The “solidity” of adult pandas is expressed in their amazing poses. They can sit as if in a chair, leaning one of their front paws on a ledge and leaning their back against some object. In this position, they can take a nap or slowly do their toilet, or they simply clean the branches of brooms from leaves and slowly chew them. In nature, pandas are active at dawn and at night. The same was observed in the zoo.

From about ten in the morning until four or five in the afternoon, most of the time the animals were in the shade, stretched out on the ground of the pen or on the floor of the cage, and dozed. With the onset of dusk, they became active, moved a lot, played, fed, and from the traces they left, we established that they were not idle even in the dark. Their fur coat is warm, outside temperature air down to minus ten degrees, our pets willingly walked in open enclosures, swam in the snow, and walked a lot with their characteristic waddling gait with a sort of shaking of their heads from side to side. We noticed that pandas are very clean. Most of the time they are silent, only occasionally making sounds similar to bleating. In the summer they do not like heavy rains, they hide from them in shelters, but after the rain they willingly wander through puddles and damp grass. But they refuse to swim in the pool, they just run in the shallow water, splashing themselves with splashes.

The giant panda has captivated the whole world with its touching appearance. 15 years ago, many experts predicted the extinction of giant pandas as bamboo forests in western China were rapidly being cut down. Currently, according to the most optimistic estimates, a little more than 1,500 animals have survived in natural conditions and the giant panda is officially listed in the Red Book. Serious steps are being taken to prevent its extinction and increase the number of animals. However, giant pandas are well known to zoologists for their low sexual activity, so there are huge problems with breeding them in captivity. Every giant panda born immediately becomes a star.

The giant panda is on the IUCN Red List and is one of the rarest, poorly studied large animals, which is facilitated by its secretive lifestyle. It became known only in the middle of the 19th century, and naturalists first observed a living panda in nature only in 1913. In China, the giant panda is declared a national treasure. Therefore, in 1995, a Chinese farmer who shot a giant panda and tried to sell its skin was sentenced to life imprisonment.

Conservation status: Endangered species.
Listed in the Red Book of the International Union for Conservation of Nature.

The giant panda is a quiet creature with a distinctive black and white costume, widely adored around the world. The panda is also considered a national treasure in China. For WWF (World Wildlife Fund) the panda has special meaning, since since 1961, the founding of this organization, it has been depicted on their logo.

The giant panda is considered a rare animal in China, and its population is limited to the provinces of Gansu, Sichuan, and Shanxi in the central part of the country. The total range covers 29.5 thousand km², but only 5.9 thousand km² is the habitat range of the giant panda.

Habitat

The giant panda lives in mixed coniferous, mountainous and deciduous forests where bamboo is present.

Description

In general, giant pandas have a round head, a stocky body and a short tail. The height at the shoulders is 65-70 cm. These animals are well known for their characteristic black and white markings. The limbs, eyes, ears and shoulders are black, while the rest is white. In some regions, the color black actually has a dark red tint. The dark markings around the eyes may be the reason for the popularity of these animals, giving them a naive, juvenile appearance. Enlarged shoulders and neck area along with reduced hindquarters create an ambling gait. Baculum (bone that is formed in connective tissue penis) is present in many other mammals. However, in other bears they are straight and pointing forward, while in pandas they are S-shaped and pointing backward.

Giant pandas have several skull bone joints. They have a large sagittal crest that is made wider and deeper by their powerful jaws. The molars and small molars are wider and flatter than those of other bears, which is why pandas have developed the ability to crush tough bamboo. A notable feature of these animals is an additional opposable finger on the hand, known as " thumb pandas." This has caused much confusion in the past when classifying these bears. In fact, it is not a thumb, but a skin protrusion.

Reproduction

Female pandas become more active during the breeding season and use scent markings. A study conducted between sexually active females and inactive pandas suggests that scent markings relate to sexual activity. Males may compete for a female.

Mating occurs from March to May. The female's estrus lasts approximately 1-3 days. Females lose their previous activity during the period of estrus, become restless and lose their appetite. Most babies are born in late summer and early fall. Pregnancy lasts about 6 weeks. At birth, babies are blind and helpless, and their body is covered with a small layer of fur. The weight of newborns is 85-140 g.

After giving birth, the mother helps the baby lie down in a position comfortable for sucking. The cub can be attached to the mother about 14 times a day, lasting up to 30 minutes per feeding. The cubs open their eyes at 3 weeks of life, move independently at 3-4 months, and are weaned from mother's milk at approximately 46 weeks. The cub remains with its mother for up to 18 months. Giant pandas do not reproduce well in captivity.

When studying the behavior of giant pandas in captivity, it was found that in half of the cases twins are born. The mother, as a rule, gives preference to one of them, and the second soon dies.

Lifespan

One giant panda is known to have reached the age of 34 in captivity, but this is rare. Average duration The lifespan of these animals is 26 years, and occasionally 30 years.

Behavior

Unlike many other bears, giant pandas do not fall into hibernation. But they descend to lower altitudes during the winter. Giant pandas do not build permanent burrows, but rather take refuge in trees and caves. They are primarily terrestrial animals, but are also good climbers and swimmers. Giant pandas are mostly solitary except during breeding season. Panda mothers play with their cubs, not only to soothe the babies, but also for fun. Some mothers often wake up their cubs to play with them.

Diet

Giant pandas have a strict energy reserve. They move little and, as a rule, obtain food while moving. Giant pandas can spend 10-12 hours a day eating. Bamboo is the main food source for pandas, but the animal only gets about 17% nutrients contained in leaves and stems. Giant pandas are well known for their upright feeding posture, which allows their front legs to freely handle bamboo stalks. An extra finger on a panda's hand helps it tear bamboo. The walls of the panda's stomach are extremely muscular, thanks to which woody food is digested, and the intestines are covered with a thick layer of mucus, which protects against splinters.

Their diet consists of: bamboo stems and shoots, fruits, plants, small mammals, fish and insects.

Threats

The black and white coat of giant pandas may have served as protection against predators in the past when pandas were exposed to predation pressure. The black and white pattern gives them a zebra-like appearance. Moreover, in the past, when these pandas lived in snowy regions, white, may have helped these bears hide in the surrounding area. However, today pandas live in almost snow-free areas. Fortunately, today there are no predators that threaten pandas.

Role in the ecosystem

The giant panda population is closely related to bamboo abundance and vice versa. Pandas help distribute bamboo seeds throughout the surrounding area. However, pandas significantly reduce the amount of bamboo, which makes it difficult for themselves to find food. Protected panda habitats will help preserve natural habitats.

Economic value for humans: Positive

Giant pandas have been hunted for their fur. In recent years the hide has been seen as a valuable sleeping mat; it is convenient, but is also believed to have supernatural protection against ghosts and help predict the future through dreams. Panda skin is highly prized in Japan, with prices reaching around $100. Giant pandas are also popular in zoos and attract many people.

Economic significance for humans: Negative

There is no real evidence that giant pandas have a negative impact, primarily due to their rarity. Pandas occupy areas that could be considered valuable areas for agriculture, but the presence of pandas, and their economic impact on tourism and ecosystem conservation there are likely to be more benefits than any negative impacts.