How long is the life span of giant pandas?

Giant pandas are endemic to China. The main existing habitats are the mountains of Sichuan, Shaanxi and Gansu in China. There are less than 1600 giant pandas in the wild in the world, which are first-class protected animals in China and are known as "living fossils" and "Chinese national treasures". Image ambassador of WWF, let's take a look at how long giant pandas live!

How long is the life span of giant pandas?

The adult weight of giant pandas is about 80,150kg, and the average life expectancy is about 25 years. Under breeding conditions, the longest life expectancy of giant pandas is more than 30 years. Meimei, the international pedigree number 217, is already 36 years old, which is equivalent to the centenary of mankind. Earlier, a giant panda named "du du" in Wuhan Zoo lived in captivity for 37 years, setting a world record.

What kind of food do giant pandas eat?

Giant pandas mainly eat bamboo. 99% of the food of giant pandas is bamboo, and there are more than 60 species of bamboo belonging to 12 genera for giant pandas to eat. In addition, wild giant pandas occasionally eat some animal carcasses or other plants. There are many kinds of bamboo that giant pandas like to eat, and arrow bamboo is only one of the more common species. These bamboos grow under the canopy of subalpine dark coniferous forest, mountain dark coniferous forest, mountain coniferous and broad-leaved forest and mountain evergreen broad-leaved forest. The distribution varies from 700 to 3500 meters above sea level, and the staple food bamboos of giant pandas in different mountain systems are different. The diet of giant pandas varies with mountains and seasons, eating different kinds of bamboo or different parts of the same kind of bamboo in different seasons. Most like to eat different kinds of bamboo shoots in spring and summer, with bamboo leaves as the staple food in autumn and bamboo stalks as the staple food in winter.

Are giant pandas capable of breeding?

Under normal circumstances, giant pandas only come into estrus once a year, while under captive conditions, 80% of female giant pandas are unable to ovulate mature eggs normally. The reason for this is that some trace elements in food, such as zinc, are reduced, which affects the development of ovaries and normal ovulation. In addition, giant pandas can learn to mate by observing similar activities in the wild. But in zoos, they are far away from the population and have no chance to learn the concept of breeding species.

If twins are born in the wild (nearly 50% of giant pandas have twins in captivity), giant panda mothers often ignore or reject the weaker one, which ensures the survival of at least one. In the case of captivity, artificial breeding will be carried out and the cub exchange technique will be adopted to make all the giant panda cubs survive as far as possible.

The newborn of the giant panda is quite immature at birth, weighing only 0.1% of the mother's body weight, and the newborn cub is very light, with an average birth weight of about 145g, about 1/1000 of the adult giant panda's weight, the lightest is 51g, and the heaviest is 225g. Taking care of a child is a very difficult task for a female giant panda, which usually takes 18 months, sometimes as long as two years, until her next child comes out.