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line Ailuropoda melanoleuca (David, 1869)

INTRODUCTION

Pandas are robust, bear-like animals with a distinctive black and white coat. They have a head and body length of 120 to 150 cm, and weigh between 85 and 110 kg. Specialized physical features include broad, flat molars, modified for crushing, and an enlarged wristbone functioning as an opposable thumb - both adaptations for eating bamboo stems. The diet of the panda is very specific, consisting almost entirely of the leaves, stems and shoots of various bamboo species; though they occasionally hunt for fish and small mammals.13 Pandas are generally solitary, but home ranges of individuals can overlap, and occasional meetings occur. The Giant Panda inhabits the bamboo-forest zone between 1,100 m and 3,300 m, exceptionally as high as 4,000 m; the lower altitude limit is determined by human cultivation and settlement. Both sexes usually reach sexual maturity at 5.5 to 6.5 years, and after a very variable gestation period of 97 to 163 days pandas generally give birth to single young or sometimes twins; the reproductive rate is about one young every two years.6 Young pandas are fully weaned at 8 to 9 months, and leave their mothers at about 18 months.13


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