Giant panda

The giant panda is a big, cuddly-looking bear with a soft white coat and black patches around its eyes, ears, and legs. Pandas live high up in the misty mountain forests of China, where thick groves of bamboo grow.

Bamboo is a panda's favourite food by far. Almost everything a panda eats is bamboo, and it takes a lot to fill up such a large bear. A panda can spend about ten to twelve hours a day eating, sitting up like a person with its snack held in its front paws.

Pandas have a clever trick for holding their food. A special bone in the wrist sticks out like an extra thumb, so a panda can grip a bamboo stalk and strip off the leaves. Its strong jaws and flat teeth then crunch right through the tough, woody stems.

Baby pandas begin life very small. A newborn cub is pink, blind, and only about the size of a stick of butter, which is tiny next to its big mother. The cub grows quickly on its mother's milk and may stay close to her for a year or more before living on its own.

For a long time there were very few pandas left, but careful work has helped them. People in China have protected big areas of bamboo forest and planted more bamboo to join the forests together. Thanks to this help, the number of wild pandas has been slowly growing.