| Female Professor Okay today we're going to continue our look at endangered species with Ailuropoda melanoleuca. This creature, whose name means, uh "black and white catfoot" in Latin, is a member of the order carnivora and is native to central western and southwestern China. It is listed as endangered in the World Conservation Union's Red List of . . .um.. .threatened Animals. There are about 1,600 left in the wild and nearly 300 more live in zoos and breeding centers around the world, mostly in. . . um... most of them are in China. Male Student Excuse me professor, are you talking about the giant panda? Female Professor Good guess, Henry. You got it. That's correct. Male Student But didn't you just say that it was a carnivore? I thought that. . . you know... they only eat bamboo and stuff, right? Female Professor You're pretty much correct again on all counts, Henry. But although 99% of giant pandas' diet consists of bamboo, its digestive system is strangely, much more similar to a meat eater than a herbivore. Unfortunately.. since it's not really designed for it, it's actually quite inefficient in the way it processes its food. Also, since, uh. . . bamboo is relatively low in nutrition, a panda needs to consume a comparatively large amount of food—around 20 to 40 pounds of bamboo each day! It basically has to spend more than half its life foraging and eating. Yeah, and the rest of its time it spends mostly sleeping and resting. Sounds like it's not that different from a lot of you..he he..! Anyway, research shows that the giant panda has been living in bamboo forests for at least several million years. It is a highly specialized animal, with some.. .uh.. unique adaptations. Unlike other members of the Ursidae, or uh... bear family, the giant panda usually eats while sitting upright. This pose looks remarkably similar to how we humans eat when we sit on the ground for a picnic. Watching giant pandas eat has actually become quite a popular attraction in zoos. To grasp the bamboo stems it uses another adaptation. It has a "pseudo thumb." This is kind of an elongated and enlarged wrist bone, which is covered with a kinda fleshy pad of skin. Female Student Professor, I've heard the pandas are closer to raccoons than... you know.. .true bears. Is that correct? They look way too cute to be bears. Female Professor No, Shelley. Though that's a common misconception. There was a lot of debate about it in the past, but recent DNA testing has shown that they are actually a kind of bear. And though many people find them cute looking, males can weigh over 300 pounds. About the.. .uh.. .same size as an American black bear. They also have extremely strong jaws and can actually be as dangerous as any other member of the bear family. Attacks on humans are not unknown. Their distinctive black-and-white coloring definitely makes them very attractive for many people, though. Some scientists . . .uh. . . speculate that it helps provide effective camouflage in their native snowy homes, but in any case, it has not been effective in keeping them off the endangered species list. Low birthrate and habitat loss continue to threaten their survival. |
