fbpx

KidsKonnect

Giant Panda Facts & Worksheets

The Giant Panda is a species of bear known for its distinctive black and white fur, with black fur around its eyes, ears, and legs and white fur on the rest of its body

Search for Worksheets

Worksheets /Science /Animals /Giant Panda Facts & Worksheets

Premium
Not ready to purchase a subscription? Click to download the free sample version   Download sample

The giant panda, or Ailuropoda melanoleuca, is a bearlike creature found in the bamboo forests of the mountains of central China. Its unique black-and-white coat, paired with its large frame and chubby face, gives it an adorable and distinctive appearance. Only about 1,900 wild pandas are estimated to be alive today, according to the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species.

See the fact file below for more information on the Giant Panda, or you can download our 29-page Giant Panda worksheet pack to utilize within the classroom or home environment.

Key Facts & Information

Physical Description

  • The black and white giant panda is built like any other bear. Its ears, eye patches, muzzle, legs, and shoulders are all covered in black fur. Its white coat covers the rest of its body. Scientists have yet to determine why these odd bears are black and white, but some have hypothesized that the striking coloring serves as excellent camouflage. A stationary giant panda is invisible in patches of dense bamboo and virtually disappears among snow-covered rocky outcrops on a mountain slope.
  • However, this hypothesis falls apart when one considers that giant pandas have no predators in the wild. Even while giant pandas are typically solitary, the pattern may assist them in identifying one another from a distance, reducing the need for social interaction.
  • Another idea proposes that the giant panda’s coat insulates it by absorbing heat from the ground and reflecting it to the panda’s body. 
  • For millions of years, the giant panda has made its home amid bamboo groves. Unique adaptations have resulted in a highly specialized animal. To stay warm in the panda’s natural habitat—the chilly forests—it has a thick, wooly coat. Large molar teeth and powerful jaw muscles in a giant panda make short work of thick bamboo stalks. Large and ponderous as they are, giant pandas are often seen as charming despite their potential threat.

Size

  • Giant pandas are about the same size as an American black bear, with a length of 4 to 6 feet and a height of 2 to 3 feet at the shoulder (on all four legs). In the wild, males can gain up to 250 pounds, making them significantly heavier than females. Females who weigh over 220 pounds or more are uncommon.

Native Habitat

  • Typically found between elevations of 5,000 and 10,000 feet, giant pandas inhabit bamboo-rich broadleaf and coniferous forests. These woodlands, often obscured by thick clouds, are characterized by constant, torrential rain or dense mist throughout the year.
  • The mountain ranges of Sichuan, Shaanxi, and Gansu provinces in south-central China are home to giant pandas. Because of human activity, such as farming and forest clearance, giant pandas can no longer survive in lowland areas and have been forced to relocate to the highlands. Only in the rugged mountains of central China can you find the rare and endangered wild panda. The pandas will feel quite at home in the high, damp bamboo forests. 

Behavior

  • The sole activities of a giant panda’s life are foraging for bamboo and strolling through the forest floor. They can swim and are adept climbers. They don’t dig burrows or go into hibernation (unless when they have pups). They like to live alone and on gentle slopes. 
  • When the weather in the mountains gets too chilly, the locals retreat to the warmer lowlands below. They avoid stressful situations and exertion due to their low-energy diet, preferring modest slopes and solitary existence. They distinguish one another by their scent. When communicating, giant pandas bleat like goats, honk, snarl, and bark instead of roaring like other bears. To get their parents’ attention, cubs cry and croak.

Communication

  • The giant panda does not have any outward signs of visual signaling. Their faces are round and expressionless. Due to the shortness of their tails, giant pandas cannot use them to communicate with one another. They can’t raise an upright crest or mane, and their ears can’t cock or flatten.
  •  It is believed that the giant panda’s environment and solitary nature prevented them from developing these visual accouterments. The giant pandas’ habitat, which consists of thick, foggy stands of bamboo, makes it difficult for them to see one another and communicate visually. Some giant pandas make noises as they play. During courtship, they communicate various emotions through elaborate vocalizations, from lust to anger.
  • Scent marking is a primary communication method used extensively throughout their territory. When a giant panda first moves into a new area, it will rub the secretions from its anal glands around the trunks of trees, the sides of boulders, or the ground. Giant pandas communicate with one another through scent marking. 
  • Depending on how the symbol is interpreted, the giant pandas’ odors might either drive them apart or bring them together. 
  • A foreign scent mark outside mating season is usually enough to scare off a would-be intruder. However, during mating season, a female’s smell mark announces her sexual readiness and attracts males to her. Generally, a female is more likely to accept a male whose scent she is familiar with.

Diet and Eating Habits

  • Many people go to zoos only to see the giant pandas eat. When eating, a panda will typically sit upright, like how we might sit on the floor. By adopting this stance, the animal can hold bamboo stems with its front paws with the aid of its “pseudo thumb,” which is an extended and more prominent wrist bone with a fleshy pad of skin covering it. The panda’s strong jaws and teeth pulverize the tough, fibrous bamboo.
  • Much of what a giant panda eats is excreted as waste because its digestive system is more akin to that of a carnivore than a herbivore. A panda must consume between 70 and 100 pounds of bamboo daily to receive all the nutrients it requires, but its poor digestive system can only absorb a fraction of that weight.
  • To maintain a massive appetite, a panda must spend 10 to 16 hours a day eating and foraging. Sleeping and relaxing take up much of the rest of its time.

Social Structure

  • Despite their reclusive nature, adult giant pandas occasionally communicate with one another through scent marking, cries, and even brief encounters. Recent studies have revealed that giant pandas may live in groups of seven to fifteen individuals.
  • Within this “group” zone, male and female home ranges overlap considerably less than the former. Most people in different “groups” don’t associate with each other. Mothers often care for their young for two years.

Sleeping Habits

  • Giant pandas in the wild will often sleep for two to four hours at a time in between meals, and this time will be stretched out or curled up depending on the panda’s mood. Giant pandas are notorious for defecating in their sleep. The number of feces left at a resting spot can estimate the giant panda’s time there. Five to ten wastes are dropped during a brief rest of fewer than two hours. 
  • When napping for more than two hours, it’s common to produce eleven to twenty-five feces. While most rest intervals are between two and four hours long, longer summer breaks of six hours or more are expected.

Reproduction and Development

  • Between the ages of 4 and 8, giant pandas are ready to start a family. They might have a child in their twenties. Female pandas only ovulate once a year, in the spring. A giant panda’s fertile window is only two or three days long, around the time of ovulation. 
  • The pheromones and vocalizations of the males attract the females.
  • After mating, it takes the female giant panda anywhere from 90 to 180 days to bear birth. Females can have twins, but typically only one will make it. Cubs of the giant panda may remain with their moms for up to three years. This limits the frequency of a wild female’s reproductive ability to every other year. Only about five to eight of the giant panda’s offspring can survive to adulthood.
  • Because of their poor reproductive rate, giant panda populations cannot recover from human-caused threats like poaching and habitat degradation. A giant panda cub is born entirely defenseless and dependent on its mother for survival. A newborn cub is about the size and weight of a stick of butter, weighing in at 3 to 5 ounces.
  • The cub is a tiny fraction of its mother’s length; it is pink, hairless, and blind. Besides marsupials like kangaroos and opossums, a newborn giant panda is the tiniest animal compared to its mother.
  • Cubs can only see clearly once they’re 6-8 weeks old and start to crawl when they’re three months old. Nutritionally, a cub may be weaned at one year, but socially, it may take up to 2 years.

Lifespan

  • The average longevity of a giant panda in a zoo may be far more extended than in the wild, but scientists are still trying to pin down an exact number. Scientists believe the average longevity of a panda in the wild is between 15 and 20 years, but pandas raised by humans can live up to 30 years.
  • According to research conducted by Chinese biologists, some pandas in Chinese zoos are over 35 years old. Hsing-Hsing, who lived in the Smithsonian National Zoo, passed away in 1999 at 28.

Role in the Forest

  • The giant panda is an excellent example of an umbrella species, protecting a wide variety of other species in its environment due to the high level of biological diversity there. 
  • This level of richness is unmatched in the temperate globe and equals that of tropical ecosystems. The golden monkey, takin, and crested ibis are just a few of the countless species of wildlife that benefit from panda conservation. The panda’s presence also boosts the local economy in many places thanks to ecotourism.

Giant Panda Worksheets

This fantastic bundle includes everything you need to know about the Giant Panda across 29 in-depth pages. These ready-to-use worksheets are perfect for teaching kids about the Giant Panda, a species of bear native to centralwestern and southwestern China. It is known for its distinctive black and white fur, with black fur around its eyes, ears, and legs and white fur on the rest of its body.

Giant Panda Worksheets
Giant Panda Worksheets
Giant Panda Worksheets

Complete List of Included Worksheets

Below is a list of all the worksheets included in this document.

  • Giant Panda Facts
  • Giant Panda
  • Pictionary
  • Another Way
  • The Black And White Bear
  • Panda Facts
  • Love For Bamboos
  • Panda(s)
  • 2-Shade Animals
  • Protect And Conserve
  • Unique Fur

Frequently Asked Questions

What is the scientific name of the giant panda?

The giant panda’s scientific name is “Ailuropoda melanoleuca,” which translates to “black and white cat-foot.”

Where do giant pandas live?

Giant pandas are native to centralwestern and southwestern China, specifically in the Sichuan, Shaanxi, and Gansu provinces. They can be found in the bamboo forests of the Qionglai and Minshan mountain ranges.

What do giant pandas eat?

Giant pandas are herbivores, and their diet consists mainly of bamboo, but they will also consume small mammals, birds, and other plants if available. Bamboo makes up over 99% of their diet.

Are giant pandas endangered?

Yes, giant pandas are considered an endangered species. According to the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), there are only 1,800 giant pandas in the wild, and their population continues to decline due to habitat loss and fragmentation.

What is being done to conserve the giant panda population?

Conservation efforts to protect giant pandas include habitat protection and restoration, captive breeding programs, research, and education and awareness campaigns. The Chinese government has also established nature reserves to protect giant pandas and their habitat and has implemented measures to reduce the impact of human activities on panda habitats. International organizations such as the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) and the Global Environmental Facility also work to conserve the species and their habitat.

Link/cite this page

If you reference any of the content on this page on your own website, please use the code below to cite this page as the original source.

Link will appear as Giant Panda Facts & Worksheets: https://kidskonnect.com - KidsKonnect, February 10, 2023

Use With Any Curriculum

These worksheets have been specifically designed for use with any international curriculum. You can use these worksheets as-is, or edit them using Google Slides to make them more specific to your own student ability levels and curriculum standards.

Related Resources