Giant Panda

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Lore & Background

The word panda was borrowed into English from French, but no conclusive explanation of the origin of the French word panda has been found. The closest candidate is the Nepali word ponya, possibly referring to the adapted wrist bone of the red panda, which is native to Nepal. In many older sources, the name 'panda' or 'common panda' refers to the red panda (Ailurus fulgens), which was described some 40 years earlier and over that period was the only animal known as a panda. The binomial name Ailuropoda melanoleuca means black and white (melanoleuca) cat-foot (ailuropoda). Since the earliest collection of Chinese writings, the Chinese language has given the bear many different names, including mò (貘, ancient Chinese name for giant panda), huāxióng (花熊; 'spotted bear') and zhúxióng (竹熊; 'bamboo bear'). The most popular names in China today are dàxióngmāo (大熊貓; lit. 'giant bear cat'), or simply xióngmāo (熊貓; lit. 'bear cat'). In Taiwan, another popular name for panda is the inverted dàmāoxióng (大貓熊; lit. 'giant cat bear'), though many encyclopedias and dictionaries in Taiwan still use the 'bear cat' form as the correct name. This name did not gain its popularity until 1988, when a private zoo in Tainan painted a sun bear black and white and created the Tainan fake panda incident.

In Their Own Story

The giant panda lives exclusively in six montane regions in a few Chinese provinces at elevations of up to 3,000 m (9,800 ft). It is solitary and gathers only in mating seasons. It relies on olfactory communication to communicate and uses scent marks as chemical cues and on landmarks like rocks or trees. Females rear cubs for an average of 18 to 24 months. The oldest known giant panda was 38 years old. As a result of farming, deforestation and infrastructural development, the giant panda has been driven out of the lowland areas where it once lived. The Fourth National Survey (2011–2014), published in 2015, estimated that the wild giant panda population aged over 1.5 years, excluding dependent young, had increased to 1,864 individuals; based on this number, and using the available estimated percentage of cubs in the population (9.6%), the total population comprised approximately 2,060 adult individuals as of 2018. Since 2016, it has been listed as Vulnerable on the IUCN Red List. In July 2021, Chinese authorities also classified the giant panda as vulnerable. It is a conservation-reliant species. By 2007, the captive population comprised 239 giant pandas in China and another 27 outside the country.

Reader's Guide

The giant panda is endemic to China. It is found in small, fragmented populations in six mountainous regions in the country, mainly in Sichuan, and also in neighbouring Shaanxi and Gansu. Successful habitat preservation has seen a rise in panda numbers, though loss of habitat due to human activities remains its biggest threat. In areas with a high concentration of medium-to-large-sized mammals—such as domestic cattle, a species known to degrade the landscape—the giant panda population is generally low. This is mainly attributed to the panda's avoidance of interspecific competition. The species has been located at elevations of 2,400 to 3,000 m (7,900 to 9,800 ft) above sea level. They frequent habitats with a healthy concentration of bamboos, typically old-growth forests, but may also venture into secondary forest habitats. The Daxiangling Mountain population inhabits both coniferous and broadleaf forests. Additionally, the Qinling population often selects evergreen broadleaf and conifer forests, while pandas in the Qionglai mountainous region exclusively select upland conifer forests. The remaining two populations, namely those occurring in the Liangshan and Xiaoxiangling mountains, predominantly occur in broadleaf evergreen and conifer forests. Giant pandas once roamed across Southeast Asia from Myanmar to northern Vietnam. Their range in China spanned much of the southeast region. By the Pleistocene, climate change affected panda populations, and the subsequent domination of modern humans led to large-scale habitat loss. Subfossil remains from sinkholes suggest that they still inhabited the Gaoligong Mountains of Yunnan Province, on the border between China and Myanmar, as recently as 5,000 years ago. This area suffered heavy deforestation around the time of the early Ming Dynasty, which may have been the event that extirpated pandas from the area. In 2001, it was estimated that the range of the giant panda had declined by about 99% of its range in earlier millenniums.

Did You Know?

• The giant panda is sexually dimorphic, with males typically 10–20% larger than females.
• The oldest known giant panda was 38 years old.
• The giant panda has a thumb-like digit on its forepaw, which is actually a modified sesamoid bone that helps hold bamboo.
• The Qinling panda subspecies (A. m. qinlingensis) has a light brown and white pattern instead of the typical black and white.
• The giant panda's lineage branched off the earliest among the eight extant bear species.