The panda

📖 In short

The giant panda is a gentle black-and-white bear that lives in the bamboo forests of China's mountains. It has two black patches around its eyes, and black ears and legs. It's one of the world's favorite animals. There's also another animal called the red panda.

🤩 Did you know?

A giant panda can eat more than 12 kilograms of bamboo a day.
China gave the United States two giant pandas in 1972.
There are few pandas in the wild, but their numbers have grown thanks to protection.
A panda spends about 12 hours a day eating.

🔎 Find out more

🌟 Eating bamboo all day

The panda spends most of its day eating bamboo stems and leaves. Because bamboo isn't very nourishing, it has to eat a huge amount every day.

🔍 An extra thumb

A panda's paw has a sticking-out bone that works like an extra thumb, so it can grip bamboo stems firmly while it sits and eats.

💡 Tiny at birth

A baby panda is born tiny, weighing only about 100 grams, pink and almost without fur. Then it grows into a huge bear.

🎯 The red panda

The red panda is a small animal the size of a cat, with reddish-brown fur and a long striped tail. It also lives in the mountains of Asia and eats bamboo.