Big panda

Giant Panda - Ailuropoda melanoleuca. This bear-like animal has long been considered a "giant raccoon" because of the common anatomical features with the small panda (considered a raccoon unconditionally), scientists only recently figured out that the giant panda is still a bear. As, however, and the red panda. However, it is possible that of the modern bears, the giant panda is closer to the spectacled bear - a representative of the family of American short-faced bears. The panda is not the largest bear. Giant pandas live in impenetrable bamboo forests. Dense thickets of bamboo, reaching a height of 3-4 meters, provide the panda with shelter and food supplies. The giant panda is a vegetarian and feeds on juicy young shoots and old stems, which it grinds with its jaws. Monotonous food is poorly nutritious and difficult to digest, and therefore the panda has to chew almost all the time of waking - and this is 10-12 hours a day, moving along the bamboo thicket. In addition to bamboo, the panda eats small animals and birds, as well as carrion. The giant panda lives in the mountains of Western China, in a very temperate climate with a pronounced change of seasons. In the cold period, the panda is inactive; in the snowy winters, it sometimes falls into a kind of hibernation.