Ailuropoda melanoleuca

Giant panda in the Ocean Park, Hong Kong.

The panda, panda bear or giant panda (Ailuropoda melanoleuca) It is a species of mammal of the order of carnivores. The study of its DNA includes it among the members of the bear family (Ursidae), being the spectacled bear its closest relative, which belongs to the tremarctine subfamily. On the other hand, the red panda belongs to its own independent family, Ailuridae. The species is highly localized. Native to central China, the giant panda inhabits mountainous regions, mainly those of Sichuan, up to an elevation of 3,500 m above sea level. no. m.

For 2017, it was estimated that the total population exceeded two thousand specimens of which 1,864 live in the wild, which shows that the number of pandas living in the wild is increasing. Since 1961 the panda has been the symbol of the WWF (World Wide Fund for Nature).

The panda's main food is bamboo (about 99% of its diet), although it also eats fruits, small mammals, fish, and insects. It is a good climber, although it is rarely seen in forests. trees. It adapts to captivity and thanks to its fur it easily supports the winter conditions of its habitat.

Anatomy

Previous extremity of a giant panda at the National Science Museum of Japan, Tokyo, Japan. Note the "sext finger", formed by the sesameid bone.

Outwardly, the panda resembles a bear of contrasting coloration. The Sichuan panda features the renowned black and white coat, while the Qingling subspecies has a coat of two contrasting shades of brown or black depending on age.

The ears, nose, hair around the eyes, shoulders, and limbs are dark. The face, belly and back are white. The ears are oval and erect. The panda's paw, with five fingers, has a "sixth finger" in the form of a thumb. It is the modification of a sesamoid bone of the wrist. Stephen Jay Gould, wrote an essay on this case, which he published in the collection The Panda's Thumb (1980).Their front legs are strong and suitable for climbing and longer and more muscular than the hind legs. Their eyes are small, and while the pupils of other bears are round, those of the panda are like those of cats, which gives them the Chinese name bear-cat.

The calves weigh between 90 and 130 grams at birth, and they hardly have any hair. Adults can weigh between 70 and 125kg and measure up to 1.90m

Distribution

The first evolutionary record of the panda dates from between the end of the Pliocene and the beginning of the Pleistocene. Some fossil remains were found in Burma, Vietnam and in the eastern portion of China, as far north as Beijing. Today panda populations are found only in southwestern China.

The panda lives in the Minshan, Qinling, Qionglai, Liangshan, Daxiangling and Xiaoxiangling mountain ranges. They are mountains covered by humid coniferous forest, ideal habitat for the species of bamboo (the cane that constitutes its main food). They are considered one of the richest temperate climate ecosystems on the planet. The heights at which the territories where pandas inhabit are located range from 1200 to 3400 m a.s.l. no. m.

Food

Although it belongs to the order of carnivores, the panda is a largely herbivorous animal, feeding almost exclusively on about thirty species of bamboo cane (99% of its diet consists of bamboo). It is known to also use insects and eggs as a source of protein. Their diet may also include rodents and young musk deer.

Inherited from its carnivorous ancestors, the panda's digestive system is not fully adapted to assimilate the cellulose molecules contained in bamboo, so it needs to consume between 12 and 38 kg of bamboo per day, a task that can take up to fourteen hours. Its strong teeth and jaws are adapted to crush the trunks of the bamboo and reach its pulp.

Although a large consumption of bamboo represents a large consumption of water (40% of the weight of bamboo corresponds to water, a figure that reaches 90% in the shoots), the panda frequently drinks water from streams or snow melted. In captivity, their diet consists of bamboo, sugar cane, rice porridge, special high-fiber biscuits, carrots, apples, and sweet potatoes.

Recently, a six-month study conducted at the Shaanxi Center in China showed that pandas have a weakness for sugar. They were offered a container with water, and another with water and natural sugars; preferring the container with the sugary solutions.

Playback

Their sense of smell is highly utilized during the breeding season. The gestation period lasts five months and the females give birth to one to two completely blind pups weighing just 140 g. They are born with a pink color and as they grow they acquire their particular coloration. The average lifespan of a panda is twelve to twenty years. Every twenty-five years of a panda bear's life represents one hundred years of human life. Pandas reach sexual maturity between four and seven years of age.

Breeding season is in the spring (mid-March to mid-May). During this time, two to five males may compete for a fertile female. When a male stands out from the rest, he gets the right to mate with the female. Copulation time is short and ranges from thirty seconds to five minutes, but the male can mount the female several times to ensure successful fertilization. Copulations are usually noisy, being accompanied by moans and screams.

The gestation of the embryo (which can weigh between 90 and 130 g, which represents 1/900 of the weight of the mother) lasts, on average, 135 days. Normally one or two pups are born; if the second case occurs, the mother will choose to continue raising only one of them (the one she notices has the greatest chance of surviving). The rejected calf is abandoned and dies. This behavior, observed in several species, occurs when the mother finds it impossible to take care of several young, so she chooses the fittest (it is not yet known how the mother makes this selection, but it is being studied by scientists)..

At birth the cub is blind and its skin has a pink coloration (product of a chemical reaction between the skin of the newborn and its mother's saliva), a month after birth the panda will acquire its traditional pigmentation. The mother will nurse her young between six and fourteen times a day for a period of thirty minutes each time. She will only leave her young for three or four hours to find food, a period of time during which the young is defenseless. Although the panda cub is capable of ingesting small amounts of bamboo from the age of six months, weaning occurs at one year of life.

On the other hand, the calf begins to walk (clumsily) after seventy-five days, and from then on the mother will stimulate it by playing and fighting with her. The calf will live with its mother (since the father does not participate in the upbringing) until it is 2 years old. The interval between one litter of pups and the next can last more than two years.

Panda breeding approximately one week old in a CIR Chengdu incubator.

In captivity, breeding pandas becomes very difficult: only 10% manage to mate naturally and only 30% of females become pregnant. In addition, 60% of captive pandas completely lose their sexual desire. Some scientists (especially in China and Thailand) try to reduce this problem by using videos of pandas copulating. The scientists do not believe that pandas learn copulative behaviors, but that the associated sounds stimulate the pandas that listen to them.

The life expectancy of a panda is about 12 years. In 2005, Basi, a Chinese female panda, turned twenty-five years old: that same year the world's oldest captive-bred panda, a female named Meimei, died at the age of 36 at the Guilin City Zoological Garden..

Habits

Pandas are normally solitary animals, although they periodically hang out with each other outside of the breeding season, out of friendship for each other. They are most active during sunrise and sunset, spending most of the remaining time sleeping in bamboo forests. They mark their territory with a combination of scents produced by their anal glands, urine, and claw markings. In this way, they avoid conflict by not using shared areas of the territory. Being a subtropical animal, the panda has lost the habit of hibernation.

Classification

For a long time, the giant panda, along with the red panda, was included in the procyonid family, the same as the raccoon. Recent genetic testing places it in the bear family (Ursidae), its closest relative being the South American spectacled bear.

There are two subspecies of giant panda:

• Ailuropoda melanoleuca melanoleuca - to which most of the bread population belongs; it is in the mountainous regions of Sichuan.
• Ailuropoda melanoleuca qinlingensis - lives in the Qinling Mountains in Shaanxi a 1.300-3,000 m. n. m. They are distinguished from the Sichuan variety by having a different coloration (light and dark brown) and a smaller head with longer molars.

The first attempt at classification, by Armand David, placed the panda under the genus Ursus, naming it Ursus melanoleucus in 1869. In 1870, Alphonse Milne-Edwards renamed the panda animal with the current name.

According to comparative DNA analyses, pandas diverged from the main stock of bears around 17 million years ago. At that time the Ursavus, or dawn bear, lived in subtropical Europe. The fossils found prove that the panda lived in environments and regions different from those it inhabits today. Other fossil records found speak of the existence of a second species (today extinct), Ailuropoda minor, which was half the size of the modern panda.

In 2002, a paper was published that proves, through studies of its genome, that the panda faced a bottleneck situation forty-three thousand years ago. The bottleneck is a phenomenon in which the population of a species is decimated, so that the current specimens descend from a small group of survivors.

Conservation status

Low birth rates, high infant mortality, and the destruction of its natural environment place it under the threat of extinction. Chinese law is very rigid in terms of hunting, which has reduced this problem. In 1995, a landowner was sentenced to life in prison for shooting a panda. The following year, two men were sentenced to death after being caught in possession of panda skins and a golden monkey. As of 1997, the penalty for offenders became twenty years in prison.

Musk deer and black bear traps often end up injuring pandas.

The number of wild pandas in China is estimated at 1,600. In 2000, one thousand one hundred and fourteen specimens were counted, scattered over territories that have a total area of 23,000 km² in the provinces of Sichuan, Gansu and Shaanxi. Studies in 2006, based on tests of DNA extracted from panda droppings, indicate that there could be three thousand animals in the wild. There are 239 captive giant pandas in China. More than a hundred of them are in a specialized center in Sichuan. Another twenty specimens are distributed by the main zoos in the world.

The main causes of danger for the panda bear are the difficulty to reproduce when in captivity, partly due to its extreme shyness, and the destruction of its natural habitat, by cutting down thousands of hectares of bamboo forests.

Another major cause of their disappearance is poachers, who exist despite the punishments imposed by the Chinese government for illegally hunting a panda bear.

Temporal evolution of conservation status

• 1965 - "Very rare but it is considered that the number of individuals will be stable or increased" (Scott, 1966)
• 1986 - Raro (IUCN Conservation Monitoring Centre 1986)
• 1988 - Raro (IUCN Conservation Monitoring Centre 1988)
• 1990 - Threatened (IUCN 1990)
• 1994 - Threatened (Groombridge 1994)
• 1996 - Threatened (IUCN Bear Specialist Group 1996)
• 2016 - Vulnerable (International Union for Conservation of Nature - IUCN).

Baby boom

2005 was considered a great year for captive breeding projects for the species, as twenty-five calves born in zoos and breeding centers survived. In 2004, only nine hatchlings survived.

History

The panda first became known to the West in 1869 thanks to French naturalist and missionary Father Armand David. It was scientifically described in 1870 by the director of the Museum of Natural Sciences in Paris, Henri Milne-Edwards. In 1936, Ruth Harkness brought a panda cub to the United States, sparking a Western fondness for the animal. Between 1936 and 1946, fourteen pandas were taken out of China by foreigners. In 1946, this activity was prohibited. Starting in 1957, China began giving away pandas as a token of goodwill. This was stopped by Chinese laws of 1990, according to which all animals, including their reproductive cells, were the property of China. In addition, zoos interested in obtaining individuals on loan are subject to signing contracts without guarantees for them, for ten years, at a cost of between one and two million dollars per year.

Name

The name panda in Chinese means big bear cat (in traditional Chinese, 大熊貓; in simplified Chinese, 大熊猫; pinyin, dàxióngmāo), although it is also called bear swaddled (huaxiong). This name is due to the fact that, unlike other bear species, the panda has vertical pupils reminiscent of cats. In the same vein, it is known as bear cat (byi-la dom) in Tibetan.

The word panda (as it is called in the West) is of uncertain origin, although it is believed to come from a Himalayan language (possibly Nepali). This name was inherited from the red panda, Ailurus fulgens, to which it was long related by having similar paws.

Its scientific name has the following etymology:

Ailuropoda comes from the Greek αἴλουρος 'cat' + -ποδος 'foot'.

melanoleuca derives from the Greek μέλανος 'black' + λευκός 'white', due to the coloration of the fur.

In popular culture

Two Kopeks Soviet Postal Seal showing the image of a Moscow Zoo panda in 1964

It is a species with great appeal to people and has been used as a claim for different conservation causes, such as the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) that adopted the panda as a symbol. Pandas in captivity in some zoos are they have become strong claims for them, and sometimes popular icons (Tohuí Panda, Chu-Lin).

In China it is the national animal. Chinese law provides harsh penalties for those who hunt panda bears.

He has appeared in numerous video games, cartoons, movies, and comics. His name has been associated with different products, cars or cookies for example.

The panda and the creationists

The sixth "thumb" of the panda fueled, through the book Of Pandas and People, the beliefs of the religious defenders of neo-creationism, who believe that an "intelligent design" governs the evolution of species, contrary to evolutionism, which is the scientific norm. Neocreationists argue that God, called (according to this theory) an intelligent agent, is behind the evolutionary process.^{[citation needed]} The scientific community claims that this approach constitutes pseudoscience. ^{[citation required]}

Pandas in zoos

Tai Shan, Washington National Zoo, D.C., June 2007.

Today, many zoos on the planet count pandas among their members, even though they are the most expensive animal to maintain.

In 2006, a New York Times article on the economics of panda care in zoos explained that the cost of keeping a panda is five times that of an elephant, the second highest in zoos. as to cost. North American zoos must pay the Chinese government the sum of two million dollars a year in royalties and fees. In general, the duration of this contract is ten years.

America

Bai Yun, at the San Diego Zoo, who had five puppies.

As of 2005, the four largest zoos in the US and the Mexico City Zoo had pandas, namely (listed in order of acquisition):

• San Diego Zoo, San Diego, California - home to Bai Yun (H), Gao Gao (M), Mei Sheng (M), and a baby named Su Lin (H).
• National Zoo, Washington D. C. - home to Mei Xiang (H), Tian Tian (M), and a baby named Tai Shan(M).
• Zoo Atlanta, Atlanta, Georgia - home of Lun Lun (H) and Yang Yang (M)
• Memphis Zoo, Memphis, Tennessee - Home Ya (H) and Le (M)
• Chapultepec Zoo, Mexico City - home of Xiu Hua who died on April 27, 2013, Shuan Shuan and Xin Xin, all females born in that zoo.
• The Toronto Zoo and Calgary Zoo in Canada

On July 9, 2005, Taishan, a male calf, was born at the National Zoo in Washington. Her parents (through artificial insemination) are Mei Xiang (H) and Tian Tian (M).

Mexico

This species first bred naturally outside of China at the Chapultepec Zoo in Mexico City. The breeding pair fathered eight young in a total of six births, of which two specimens survive. They exceeded the life expectancy of their species, which is an average of twenty years, making them the longest-lived in the world.

Australia

• Zoo of Adelaide, house of Wang Wang (M) and Funi (H). They arrived on 28 November 2009.

Asian

In China it is found in:

• Beijing Zoo
• Shanghai Zoo
• Panda Base
• Research Base of Giant Panda Breeding of Chengdu, Chengdu, Sichuan
• China Conservation and Research Center, at the Wolong National Nature Reserve, Sichuan
• Chime-Long Paradise Amusement Park, Canton
• Ocean Park, Hong Kong
• Macau Giant Panda Pavilion
• Zoo Park in Chongqing

In Japan, pandas have double names: Japanese and Chinese. Three zoos in Japan have pandas:

• Ueno Zoo, Tokyo - home of Ling Ling (M), the only panda with "Japanese citizenship". He died on 30 April 2008.
• Oji Zoo, Kobe, Hyogo - home of Kou Kou (M) and Tan (H)
• World Adventure, Shirahama, Wakayama - Ei Mei (M), Mei Mei (H), Rau Hin (H), Ryu Hin and Syu Hin (two twin males), and Kou Hin (M). Yu Hin (M) was sent to China in 2004.

In Thailand they are found in:

• Chiang Mai Zoo located in northern Thailand is home to Chuang Chuang (M) and Lin Hui (H). For the pleasure of the public, both have been able to be observed recently by colpuling and it is expected that there has been fertilization from that copulation.

In Taiwan they are in:

• Taipei Zoo, Taiwan

In Singapore:

• River Safari, a new park under Singapore's Wildlife Reserves.

In Malaysia:

• Negara Zoo, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

Europe

Giant Panda at the Vienna Zoo, Tiergarten Schönbrunn

Zoos in Europe:

• Zoologischer Garten Berlin, Berlin, Germany - home to Bao Bao from 1980 to 2011, was the oldest captive panda in the world; lived for 32 years in Berlin and never reproduced.
• Tiergarten Schönbrunn, Vienna, Austria - In 2003, the Schönbrun Zoo became the home of a couple of pandas, Hui Long (macho) and Yang Yang (hembra). On August 23, 2010, Fu Hu was born the second puppy that the couple has managed to procreate naturally while in captivity.
• Zoo-Aquarium, Madrid, Spain - On June 27, 2007, the Chinese government granted a pair of pandas to the Kings of Spain on the occasion of its visit to China. The male panda, Bing Xing, was six years old and the female, Hua Zui Ba, four. Hui Zui was inseminated with the Bing Xing semen and gave birth to the PO and De (machos) twins in September 2010.

In this zoo, in the 80s the Chinese authorities gave the kings a pair of pandas, the male Chang-Chang (Strength) and the female Shao-Shao (Continuity) that after artificial insemination of Chia-Chia, from London Zoo, she managed to give birth to two cubs, surviving one male, Chu-Lin (Treasure among the bamboos). He died young without issue, but samples of his semen have been preserved.

• Edinburgh Zoo, Edinburgh, UK - From December 4, 2011, it became home to a couple of pandas, Yang Guang (macho) and Tian Tian (hembra), both 8 years old.
• ZooParc de Beauval, Saint-Aignan, France - In 2012, the arrival in France of a couple of pandas named Huanhuan (macho) and Yuanzi (hembra), both three years old, is expected. After December 3, 2011 in China, a historic agreement was signed as part of a Conservation and Research Project between the two nations. The agreement is the result of the negotiations at the highest level after Chinese President Hu Jintao will consent to his French counterpart Nicolas Sarkozy on 30 November 2011, thus becoming a symbol of friendship between the two nations.
• Hire in Daiza, Brugelette, Belgium Hao Hao (F) and Xing Hui (M) since February 2014