Who doesn’t love pandas? Big, furry with black-patched eyes, no animals are as cute as pandas. Here are some interesting facts about panda you may want to know.
1. Cat-bear. Pandas are called Mao-Xiong in Chinese. Mao means cats and Xiong means bears. Their name is a strange combination of two unrelated animals, probably because of pandas’ giant clumsy bodies as well as their cute looking. To your surprise, there are also dog-bears(Gou-Xiong) in Chinese, which in fact, are black-bears.
2. Vegetarian. Bamboo makes up 90% of pandas’ diet. Occasionally, they eat grasses, wild tubers, or even meat in the form of birds or rodents. Due to inefficient digestion, they need to consume 20-40 lbs of bamboo a day to get all their nutrients, which involves 10-16 hours a day spent foraging.
3. Small population. Less than 2000 pandas scattered sparsely across five far-flung mountain ranges in South West China. China’s conservation management plan for panda has been in effect since 1993. Over the years, the population of pandas has been increasing gradually.
4. WWF. The inspiration for the WWF logo came from Chi-Chi: a giant panda that was living at the London Zoo in 1961, the same year WWF was created. WWF’s founders were aware of the need for a strong, recognizable symbol that would overcome all language barriers. They agreed that pandas make an excellent choice.
5. “Racism is stupid!”
