Does it ever happen that a bear is not even a bear at all? This happened with a panda. Scientists can’t agree on which class of animals a panda belongs to.
Red and big panda
The problem is compounded by the fact that there are two very different types of pandas. The familiar black and white panda is called large. A large panda weighs more than 100 kilograms, has a massive body and looks like a real bear.
But another, less famous panda is very small in size, its length does not exceed 60 centimeters, it has bristly red fur and a long bushy tail. This animal, which is called the red panda, looks more like a raccoon than a bear, both in size and in the shape of its body and tail, which is also covered with dark and light circular stripes. After a long comparative study of both creatures, the scientists decided that the small red animal and the large black and white were close relatives. The structure of their bodies is very similar, they have common features in behavior, in the choice of food.
Is the panda a raccoon?
Because of this similarity, two species of animals are called pandas. But here the agreement of scientists comes to an end. Some scientists say that the big panda is a kind of bear, others say that the red panda is a type of raccoon, there are still others who believe that the big and red pandas form a special detachment of mammals - pandas. The big panda generally confuses scientists. The panda runs at a trot, not a gallop, like an ordinary bear.The panda does not know how to growl, but bleats like a sheep. The panda does not hibernate and does not eat meat.
Interesting fact: a panda eats about 50 kilograms of bamboo shoots per day.
Is the panda a bear?
However, studying blood cells and other cells of the big panda and comparing them with the cells of ordinary bears, scientists came to the conclusion that big pandas are still bears that have adapted to life in the highlands of China, Nepal and Tibet. It was suggested that bears, raccoons and red pandas have a common ancestor - an animal that lived 20-40 million years ago, which explains the similarity of raccoons, bears and pandas. True, raccoons and red pandas evolved in one direction, and bears, including the big panda, in another. The big panda lives in dense forests at heights of 1.5 to 3 kilometers, eating bamboo, which grows around trees on the slopes of the mountains.
The big panda is very gluttonous. She eats about 10 kilograms of bamboo leaves and trunks a day and about 40 kilograms of delicious young bamboo shoots. But no one thinks pandas are like pigs. Pandas cannot, like cows, digest cellulose - fiber, which is found in bamboo and other plants. Therefore, in order to extract as many nutrients as possible from its “wooden” food, the panda is forced all the time that she does not sleep, work jaws efficiently, chewing on bamboo.
Red pandas also live in Asia, but not so high, they live at the foot of the Himalayan mountains. Like big pandas, red pandas feed mainly on bamboo, diversify their diet with fruits, nuts and sometimes small animals.The big panda brings in the litter one cub. Like cubs, panda cubs are born funny and small.
Interesting fact: instead of galloping and growling like a real bear, the panda trots and bleats like a sheep.
Newborn pandas
Newborn pandas are blind and bald, weigh about 120 grams, like a jar of tomato juice. There are bright prospects for the little panda to increase its weight by 900 times in two to three years. Why are babies born so small? Scientists say that the thing is the growth characteristics of the cubs before birth (even in the womb). After the egg is fertilized in the panda's body, it moves freely inside the uterus without attaching to its wall, as is the case in most mammals.
Scientists believe that the body of bears and females of large pandas regulates the number of cubs so that it matches the amount of food available. If the she-bear cannot find enough food to feed herself and her cub during pregnancy, then the fetus will most likely not attach to the wall of the uterus and will not begin to grow. But if everything goes well, then the fetus is firmly attached to the uterus. This usually occurs at 4-6 months of a bear pregnancy. At the same time, little time is left for gaining weight and the cub is born small in the light of God. But, already born, the panda cubs grow surprisingly fast. In the first year of life, a panda gains weight up to 24 kilograms.
Interesting video about pandas
