Giant Panda Gallery

Giant pandas in captivity

Giant pandas (Ailuropoda melanoleuca) in captivity. The giant panda mainly eats the shoots and leaves of bamboo, which is abundant in its mountain forest habitat of southern central China. Its habitat and numbers are threatened by humans. It may live to over 30 years old in captivity. This adult pair were photographed between 1980 and 2006 at the Smithsonian Institution's National Zoo, Washington DC, USA. The first giant pandas arrived here in 1972 from China. The male (Hsing Hsing) died in 1999. The female (Ling Ling) died in 1992. The current pair, Mei Xiang and Tian Tian, arrived in 2000 and had a cub (Tai Shan)

© CAROL M. HIGHSMITH ARCHIVE, LIBRARY OF CONGRESS/SCIENCE PHOTO LIBRARY

Giant panda baby

Giant panda baby (Ailuropoda melanoleuca) Family: Ailuropodidae.
Wolong China Conservation and Research Center for the Giant Panda within Wolong Reserve. Sichuan Province.
CHINA
RANGE: Temperate bamboo forests of altitudes between 6, 500 and 10, 000 feet. Central Sichuan, South Gansu, East Qinling and in Shaanxi Provinces of China.
ENDANGERED SPECIES
Less than 1000 animals remain in the wild. Even the death penalty does not deter people from hunting these animals, but they are mostly endangered due to habitat loss.
They consume about 45 pounds of a specific type of bamboo per day as well as some mosses, fungi and even small rodents. Males weigh: 85-125kg's and females weigh: 70-100 kg's. They live 10-15 years in the wild and up to 30 in captivity. Their natural predators are leopards

© Pete Oxford / DanitaDelimont.com

Three month old giant panda cub being held by researcher (Ailuropoda melanoleuca) Bifengxia Giant Panda Base, CCRCGP, Ya'an, Sichuan, China, October 2009

© Bedell, Daniel A. / Animals Animals/Earth Scenes

2009, Ailuropoda Melanoleuca, Animal, Baby, Ccrcgp, China, Close Up, Cub, Daniel Bedell, Endangered Species, Giant Panda, October, Yaan