The giant panda, the legendary mount of Chi You, is a majestic iron-eating beast. Because of its long history, it is known as the "living fossil" of the animal kingdom. It is rare in number and has been named my country's "national treasure." It has won the love of the general public with its natural and cute appearance and silly movements.

A simple summary is: giant pandas have strong fighting power, cute appearance, rare numbers, and are deeply loved by people.

There is even a joke that has been circulating on the Internet: Chi You had two iron-eating beasts, one for fighting and one for being cute. But in the end, he rode the wrong one on the day of the fight, and the one he rode was the cute one. Now...

It can be seen that people are not fooled by the silly appearance of giant pandas, and they still clearly know the strength of giant pandas. The word "iron-eating beast" is not meant to sound domineering. In ancient times, people found that giant pandas would go to residents' homes and lick cooking utensils, and sometimes chewed the cooking utensils, so they got the name "iron-eating beast". There is also a saying that iron-eating beasts will eat hardware. Of course, both of these theories are only handed down from ancient times.

But the sharpness and bite force of the giant panda’s teeth are truly amazing. The canine teeth weigh 1,298.9 pounds and the cleft teeth weigh 1,851.9 pounds, which is as much as a tiger or a lion. This is a legendary species that can use three or four wolves as sitting cushions. And it used to eat meat.

Although panda has a cat in its name, it is a real bear. Bears are basically omnivorous animals. Of course, according to observations, they eat more wild fruits, but it is also completely acceptable to eat meat. The only difference between polar bears and giant pandas is that polar bears only eat meat, while giant pandas are purely vegetarian. They occasionally catch bamboo rats and eat meat.

So don't think that pandas are easy to bully just because they are vegetarians now. They bite bamboo so hard that they can't even chew a bone?

But such a domineering iron-eating beast, why do you still call it weak?

"The Theory of Evolution" says: Natural selection, survival of the fittest. There have been so many mass extinctions and minor extinctions on the earth, but the giant panda has lived steadily for 8 million years, evolving its body following these extinction movements.

Then it evolved its body into something like this:

A high degree of myopia of 800 degrees; eyes that have no whites and cannot be stimulated by strong light; they have lost the sense of freshness of meat but still have it. It retains the digestive tract of a carnivore; it is difficult to have children and has problems with ovulation; in order to maintain its relatively large body, it has to eat bamboo for 11 to 14 hours a day, and this bamboo cannot be digested, so it is excreted as much as it is eaten.

Once these are laid out, we will think that giant pandas are so cute, how can they be like this! But there is a basis for evolution.

• The eyesight has deteriorated. Living in a dark and dense bamboo forest for a long time, the giant panda has basically no use of his eyesight, so the giant panda has become 800 degrees myopic. But they have evolved cat-like pupils that can adjust to light and dark.

• Because the eyes are small and have no whites, dark circles evolved.

So our favorite dark circles are not for cuteness at all, they are to protect people’s eyes. Dark circles can absorb light to the maximum extent, so less light enters the eyes.

• About 5,000 to 7,000 years ago, giant pandas suffered a genetic mutation and lost the umami taste of their meat.

In other words, the giant panda who originally ate meat suddenly felt why meat was so unpalatable, and decided to become a vegetarian. But the stomach and intestines did not change anything.

• Giving birth is difficult.

Researchers found that giant pandas have problems with their reproductive systems. They have difficulty ovulating and only give birth to one baby per litter. Usually only one of two babies will survive. And until the cubs grow up to 9 months old and can survive on their own, giant pandas will give up the next birth to take care of the babies.

So the giant pandas are on the verge of extinction. The big reason is that they have fewer and fewer children!

• Cannot digest bamboo, eat and eliminate it.

You may not believe it, but the poop of giant pandas tastes like green tea. Some people even make this green tea.

The intestines of herbivorous animals are relatively long and contain more bacteria, which help digestion. The feeding habits of animals are exactly the opposite. The giant panda is a giant bear that eats plants and has an animal stomach.

Moreover, bamboo is so difficult to digest. There is no intestines and stomach capable of digesting fiber. It is still difficult to digest food. Because of its size, it eats a lot, so it needs to be eaten constantly.

However, eating bamboo is really forced.

As an iron-eating beast, giant pandas have great abilities. However, due to restrictions such as climate change, it has repeatedly lost in competition with exotic omnivores, including habitat loss and the impact of human activities. Eventually, I was forced to go to the bamboo forest to chew the hard and indigestible bamboo.

The reason why giant pandas are on the verge of extinction is partly due to their own reproduction difficulties, and partly also due to the impact of human activities. But in ancient times, the giant panda was regarded as an auspicious beast by the ancients. During battle, as long as a flag with the giant panda embroidered on it was held high, it represented reconciliation between the two parties.

However, the identity of this auspicious beast also brings a little trouble to the giant panda, because from the "Book of Songs" and "The Book of Songs" 2,500 years ago, it is recorded that giant panda skins are rare tributes from local governments to the emperor. tribute. Since then, in successive dynasties, emperors have always given panda skins as precious rewards to other small countries that submitted themselves to the dynasty, a dozen pieces at a time.

It is already difficult for giant pandas to give birth. As a result, the number of giant pandas has decreased.

Fortunately, we all now realize the preciousness of giant pandas and have brought them back from the brink of extinction. On August 8, two wild giant pandas were captured by an infrared camera in Maoxian County, Sichuan. Doesn’t it mean that the survival ability of giant pandas is getting stronger and stronger, and our efforts are also paying off?