Introduction

Have you ever wondered about a furry Chinese animal called the giant panda? Have you wondered where this strange creature eats and lives? This book will tell you about the fascinating habitat, diet, and life cycle of the giant panda. You will learn how this fuzzy animal looks and acts, through just a few pages of this book, written about giant pandas.

What A Giant Panda Is

Giant pandas are adorable animals from China. They are mammals, which means they are a group of animals whose mothers directly give birth to and nurse their young , instead of laying eggs.

Giant pandas can be fairly big, and they have black and white body patterns. These amazing animals spend most of their day eating!

Giant Panda Habitats

The giant pandas’ main habitats are bamboo forests in China. Bamboo is a kind of wood-like grass. It is different from other grasses because it can be over 9ft. (3m.) tall, and it is a lot stronger and thicker. 

Since giant pandas are endangered, some of them live in zoos, where they are safe, fed, and cared for. Some giant pandas live in tree holes, and select a moderately large territory where their home is ,and where they travel, eat, and live in.

Giant Panda Diets

The main diet of the giant panda is bamboo. At an early age, giant pandas will only eat leaves, and unsturdy bamboo. But as giant pandas get older and their teeth get stronger, they are able to eat sturdier and thicker bamboo.

 Giant pandas have an extra finger called a “sixth claw”. It acts like a thumb and helps them grasp bamboo more firmly.

Apart from bamboo, giant pandas will also sometimes eat grass, wildflowers, mushrooms, and honey. Giant pandas would eat meat if they could find it, but they are too slow to catch it; however, they can sometimes catch fish from streams.

Giant Panda Life Cycles

A giant panda’s life starts when its mother gives birth to it. 

Giant panda females usually move into a tree hole, den, or cave to give birth to their child.

Giant pandas are very small and helpless at birth. They weigh about 4 ounces, and are about the size of a small kitten. They also can’t hear or see at birth. When they are very young, they are little white balls of fur, and their spots appear in only one area at a time.

 Giant panda mothers hug, clean, and protect their cubs, until they are old enough to take care of themselves. If the mother has twins, she holds one in her paw, and the other in her mouth. When the cub is two months old, it is able to see, its first teeth appear, and it is able to climb around and play with its mother.

 When the cub is seven months old, it can claw, climb, and play alone. At one years old, the cub stops milking, and can grow to be 60 pounds! Finally, when the cub is one year and six months old, it starts to live alone.

 A giant panda mates when it is 6 years old. It climbs a tree and lets out a loud cry that attracts the mate. After the two giant pandas have mated, the female drives off the male with a hard bite. 

Four to six months after the mating, the female gives birth to her cubs. Giant pandas’ full sizes can go up 200 - 250 pounds! 

In conclusion, giant pandas are significant animals that people should love and be kind to for the future.

Glossary

bamboo noun a kind of large wood-like grass that has its own leaves

cave noun a large hole in rock, on a mountain or a cliff

den noun a kind of animal habitat that is in a cozy and hidden away place, like under the roots of a big tree

mates verb for a male and female to meet and have babies

sixth claw noun an extra finger which helps a panda hold bamboo

tree holes noun a hole in a tree in which mother pandas sometimes live in when they are nursing their young

    twins noun two people who are born as siblings at a very similar time, and look alike

Sources

• Giant Pandas, Kay McDearmon

• Giant Pandas, Marcia S. Freeman