MeisterGerald(dom male)
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4 years ago •
Apr 13, 2020
4 years ago •
Apr 13, 2020
Since they were first described by Westerners in 1869, giant pandas have been placed in the bear family (Ursidae), the raccoon family (Procyonidae) and in their own unique family (Ailuropodidea), depending on whether researchers were looking at bone structure, behavior or penile characteristics. They share the name “panda” with one other species, the red or lesser panda. Only in the 1980s was genetic analysis able to differentiate the two, with red pandas being placed within the procyonids and giant pandas within the bear family.
Ask zoo visitors what makes pandas unique among bears, and they’re likely to say something about the tiny cubs, black-and-white coloring or bamboo diet. But all bears give birth to altricial (underdeveloped) young. And five species of bears are some combination of black and white, while the remaining species are either all white (polar bears), all black (American black bears) or remarkably variable (brown bears).
Meanwhile, although pandas do go heavy on bamboo, eating as much as 44 pounds a day, they retain the capacity to eat meat in both their tooth structure and gut flora. Chinese villagers report pandas breaking into livestock pens and consuming goats and sheep. In China, we recently photographed a giant panda feeding for several days on the carcass of a takin (a large goat-like ungulate). That places pandas at one end of a spectrum of omnivorous bear species, which eat a combination of plants, insects and meat. Only polar bears are all-meat eaters.
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