The Giant Panda

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The Giant Panda

• By Jerry, Gabriel, Sarai and Jessie

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• The animal we chose for our power point is the
  Giant Panda.

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• It has a white stomach. Their feet are turned
  inwards and have five toes.

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• There are two kinds of pandas the giant panda
  and the lesser panda.

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• The giant panda is one of the rarest animals in
  the world.

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• A fullgrown panda is somewhat smaller than an
  American black bear.

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• With its white face and black patches around its
  eyes, it is the easiest of animals to recognize.

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The giant panda has lived for centuries in
coniferous forests with dense under growth of
bamboo, elevations of five thousand to eleven
thousand feet.
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• Rain or dense mist throughout the year covers
  these remote forests in heavy clouds.

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• Today, these forests are under attack by dramatic
  increases in human population. Agriculture
  ranching, logging, trapping and human settlement
  dramatically threaten their habitat. Previously
  they lived at lower elevations but farming and
  clearing of the forest have pushed them higher
  into the mountains.

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• Though the giant panda is classified as
  carnivore, it is actually a herbivore feeding
  mainly on bamboo. It feeds on both the shoots and
  the roots but whenever available it prefers the
  tender leaves and stems.

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• Its cheek teeth are so powerful that they can
  slice and crush something as thick as a mans
  leg. The panda also eats some bulbs and tubers of
  other plants grasses and small insects.

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• Interesting, though the giant panda feeds mainly
  on bamboo, its digestive system cannot cope
  well with it and much of the bamboo passes
  undigested through its intestines.

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• To get enough nourishment it may therefore spend
  as many as 12 hours a day feeding.

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• Pandas in the wild are becoming smaller and
  smaller. Female pandas may give birth to two
  babies at a time. But only one lives. This is
  because the baby pandas are very small and
  helpless and the mother panda can only look after
  one of them.

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• Giant pandas do not have babies as much as
  some other animals. This is why there is
  always so much excitement when a panda is born
  in a zoo.

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• Newborn cubs weigh four to eight ounces and are
  about six to eight inches long. They are born
  pink with almost no hair and they are blind.

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• At about one week they begin to develop their
  distinctive black and white markings and at about
  5 to 7 weeks they start to open their eyes.
  Pandas are one of the most endangered species on
  our planet. The current estimate is that only
  1,000 pandas live in the wild. A new study is
  currently under way to obtain a more
  accurate count of wild pandas.

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• Pandas are on the world conservation
  unions red list of threatened animals. The U.S
  Endangered Species Act (ESA) protects giant
  pandas as does the Convention on international
  Trade in Endangered Species (CITES).

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• Hunting and poaching have been reduced due to
  strict laws by the government .

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We would like to thank Our 5th grade
partner Yara