The giant panda is a carnivore-built bear that decided bamboo was the answer — and reorganized its whole body, schedule, and even its thumb around that choice.
Here are the verified facts about China's most famous bear.
Giant pandas are true bears, and though classified in the order Carnivora, bamboo makes up around 99% of their diet.
Because bamboo is so low in nutrients, pandas eat for 10-14 hours a day, consuming 20-40 pounds (9-18 kg) of it.
The panda's famous 'thumb' is actually an enlarged wrist bone — a pseudo-thumb evolved for gripping bamboo stalks.
A newborn panda weighs only about 3-5 ounces (100 g) — roughly 1/900th of its mother's weight, one of the most extreme size gaps among mammals.
Panda cubs are born pink, nearly hairless, and blind, developing their black-and-white coat in the first month.
Wild giant pandas live only in the mountain bamboo forests of central China, mainly in Sichuan province.
Pandas are excellent tree climbers and can swim; cubs climb to escape danger.
An adult panda's digestive system is still that of a carnivore, which is why it must eat such huge volumes of bamboo to survive.
Pandas are largely solitary, communicating by scent-marking, bleats, and honks rather than roars.
Female pandas are fertile only 2-3 days a year, one reason breeding programs found reproduction so challenging at first.
China's wild panda population has grown to roughly 1,900, and in 2016 the IUCN downgraded the species from endangered to vulnerable.
The giant panda has been the symbol of WWF since the organization's founding in 1961.
Nearly all pandas in zoos worldwide are on loan from China, and cubs born abroad are typically returned to China.
Pandas do a somersaulting scent-marking handstand — marking trees higher up signals a bigger bear.
Despite the cuddly image, pandas are powerful bears with one of the strongest bite forces among carnivorans, built for crushing bamboo.
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