Discussion

his week's painting subject is panda, meaning giant panda or panda bear, and bamboo.

Giant Panda (Ailuropoda melanoleuca)

First of all, this is not a giant panda.

It is a red panda (Ailurus fulgens) or lessor panda which, in spite of its names, is not at all related to the giant panda. It is more closely related to racoons, weasels, and skunks than to giant pandas.

The giant panda is a type of bear found only in China and Zoos. (I'm skipping the "giant" part of the name from here on.)

n China, pandas are native to six forested mountain regions ranging about 4,000 to a little over 10,000 feet in altitude. (Various sources give different altitude ranges, but the range I gave is reasonably common.) They used to live in lowland areas, too, but farming, deforestation, and other human activities have driven them out of lowland areas.

Adults weigh from 220 to 254 lbs. Males are 10 to 20% larger than females. Their paws have six digits, one of which is actually a modified wrist bone that acts like an opposable thumb. It helps them to hold onto things, like dinner.

Like other bears, pandas have stomachs primarily designed for digesting meat. However the panda's diet consists almost exclusively of bamboo with little nutritional content, presenting an evolutionary puzzle. Scientists speculate that when pandas became a distinct species from other bears, they lived in an area with little typical bear food but an abundant supply of bamboo. They have broad molars and very strong jaw muscles that helps them chew the very tough, highly fibrous bamboo.

Because bamboo has little nutritional content, pandas spend a considerable amount of time eating. Because their stomachs are incapable of digesting much of the highly fibrous material, a considerable amount of what they eat passes straight through their systems.

Pandas live solitary lives except during mating season; March through May. However, during that period, females are only fertile for a single span of 24 to 72 hours just once a year. The consequence is a very low birth rate.

Gestation ranges from 95 to 160 days. The range is because fertilized panda eggs don't always implant in the uterine wall right away. Twins are often born, but in the wild, mothers choose the stronger of the two and ignores the other which soon dies. Newborns are about the size a stick of butter. Females are the sole caregivers.

At six weeks of age, panda babies are cute, cuddly, and have developed normal panda coloration.

Cubs begin to crawl when they are about 2½ months old. The panda in this photo is 4½ months old.

Cubs begin to eat small amounts of bamboo at 6 months, but they continue to nurse for the first year of their lives.

They continue to live with their mothers until they are 18 to 24 months old. 

Pandas born in zoos but destined to be released into the wild are handled by keepers wearing panda costumes drenched with panda scent to prevent cubs from imprinting on humans. On the day of release, a test is made using a stuffed predator like a leopard. If the panda ambles up to the stuffed animal out of curiosity instead of recoiling away from it, it fails the test and is brought back to spend the rest of its days in zoos.

Probably the most important thing to know about pandas so far as humans are concerned is that they are remarkably cute and fascinating to watch. Sometimes, they watch right back.

There is one recognized subspecies of giant pandas; the Qinling panda (Ailuropoda melanoleuca qinlingensis) or brown panda. They are extremely rare. Aside from their color, Qinling pandas are very similar to giant pandas.

Bamboo

Pandas in China's Qinling or Qin Mountains in the Shaanxi Province were the subject of a recent 6-year study to investigate panda eating patterns. I'm not sure whether it was Qinling or regular giant pandas in the study since both live in that area. Scientists wanted to learn whether pandas just ate what they randomly found or if they had an eating strategy. It turned out to be the latter case. 

Bamboo goes through different growth stages. They initially begin as shoots.

Bamboo shoots are the most nutritious part of the plant, and pandas like them. People eat them, too.

As shoots grow, all their nutritional energy is used up to produce stalks or culms which are valueless as panda or people food. Some period of time passes before stems and leaves form, which once again have some nutritional value. Though not a lot, it is enough to once again sustain pandas.

One type of bamboo in the Qinling Mountain study that pandas ate was arrow bamboo (Pseudosasa japonica)

Here is a closer look at their leaves.

If pandas had to rely only on arrow bamboo, they would starve in the interval between when shoots were available and the time that stems and leaves began to appear. That is why pandas in the wild require at least two different types of bamboo to survive.

The other type of bamboo in the Qinling sturdy was some kind of wood bamboo; not sure which. Its importance was that when parts of the arrow bamboo were useful as food, the wood bamboo was not. When arrow bamboo was valueless as food, the type of wood bamboo in the study was nutritious. That pattern persists throughout the year.

In the Qinling Mountains, arrow bamboo grows in one area and the other bamboo grows in a different area. The pandas migrated back and forth between areas at the right times to be were they needed to be when they needed food to survive. The knew somehow.

Bon apatite.

Artwork

I've not been able to find any Japanese artists' paintings of pandas earlier than the middle of the 20th century; too soon to be free of copywrite restrictions. The story is entirely different for bamboo, however. Here are a few examples.

Itō Jakuchū (1716 – 1800)

Though a mid-Edo Period (1603 - 1868) artist when Japan was isolated from most of the rest of the world,  Jakuchū experimented with perspective and other Western artistic techniques. He is especially famous for his paintings of roosters. It isn't know when his Golden Pheasant and Bamboo in Show was originally produced, but this reprint was produced in 1924.

Shibata Zeshin (1807 – 1891)

Zeshin's specialty was lacquer painting, and he has been called Japan's greatest lacquerer. In spite of that, his reputation in Japan is mixed. He has been criticized both for being too conservative and too modern. Regardless, he is much studied in the West. His Bamboo Shoots was  produced sometime in the 1880s.

Fukada Chokujo

I've been unable to find any information about this artist. He did, however, produce this Sparrow and Bamboo print in the 1900 to 1910 timeframe. It was a part of a publisher's sample album which was sent to various vendors and never exported.

Ohara Koson (1877 – 1945)

Koson was a leader in Japan's shin-hanga movement to restore traditional subjects, values, and techniques to Japanese prints. In his early career, he produced triptychs illustrating scenes from the Russo-Japanese war, but the overwhelming majority of his prints were kachō-ga (pictures of birds and flowers). His Two Tree Sparrows Between Bamboo was produced in 1910.