In our impression, giant pandas are all naive and cute, making everyone fall in love with them in an instant. But did you know that giant pandas who make a living by being "cute" have another side that is unknown to everyone. Today let’s take a look at some cool facts about giant pandas!

Giant pandas are not cats

Giant pandas are actually bears and one of the carnivores with the highest bite force.

Although the giant panda has "cat" in its name, it is a carnivorous mammal in the family Ursidae. In everyone’s impression, giant pandas have always been animals that eat bamboo. As everyone knows, giant pandas originally ate meat. The reason for eating bamboo is that pandas changed their eating habits in order to adapt to changes in the environment during their evolution. However, The giant panda's teeth and digestive tract are still intact.

Data show that the giant panda’s bite force is as high as 1298.9N. Its bite force is second only to polar bears, tigers, lions and other animals, and is on par with brown bears.

Giant pandas are born with "high myopia"

Because giant pandas have lived in dense bamboo forests for a long time, and the light in the bamboo forests is dark, their eyesight has deteriorated during millions of years of evolution. , so they can only see things within a few meters, and things farther away are blurry. Pandas mainly complete their recognition of things through smell and hearing.

Slow giant pandas are actually good athletes

Although giant pandas look chubby and do everything slowly, in fact, they are all athletes Sports master. Giant pandas climb trees at least once a day and swim as much as possible as long as there is water.

When faced with danger, giant pandas can run at a speed of more than 40 kilometers per hour in the forest, which is equivalent to the speed of a car.

Giant pandas spend 55% of their lives eating bamboo

99% of giant pandas' food is bamboo. Giant panda cubs start eating bamboo when they are 6 months old. An adult giant panda eats 12 to 38 kilograms of food every day, and it takes about 12 to 16 hours to eat every day. However, due to the low nutrition and low digestibility of bamboo, giant pandas can only maintain metabolic balance by eating constantly.

Giant pandas have "six fingers"

We usually see that giant pandas can grasp bamboo very flexibly, just like human palms, so do you know how many giant pandas have A finger?

In fact, giant pandas have "six fingers"! Strictly speaking, the giant panda's "sixth finger" cannot be called a finger because it has no nails and is just a movable protrusion, so it is called a "pseudo thumb."

Don’t underestimate this “pseudo-thumb”. This is the giant panda’s secret weapon for grabbing food, and it plays a very important role.

The "pseudo-thumb" is a specialization of the sesamoid bones in the wrist, which gives the giant panda a gripping function that other bears do not have. When giant pandas are eating, they can better grasp and flexibly eat bamboo.

Pandas can defecate more than 40 times a day

Because they eat more and poop more! Unlike herbivorous animals such as horses, cattle, and sheep, pandas have a very short digestive tract, so the time that food can stay in the digestive tract is also very short, and the nutrients that can be absorbed are limited.

Most herbivores can digest 80% of the food they eat, while giant pandas can digest less than 17%. Food eaten by general herbivores will stay in their bodies for 24 hours, but giant pandas will excrete feces in 5 to 13 hours. The number of bowel movements a day can reach an astonishing 40 times.

In order to obtain enough energy, giant pandas eat about 20 kilograms of bamboo every day. If you encounter bamboo shoots you like to eat, you will eat more. Under normal circumstances, giant pandas spend more than 10 hours a day eating.

Giant pandas have different “languages”

Giant pandas can make 19 different sounds. These sounds can come in various complex combinations, ranging from high to low to soft. Each sound has a specific meaning, and the mixture of different sounds expresses certain emotions. There are "eight languages" that can be heard carefully: bird calls, calls, cow calls, groans, lip smacking, dog barking, bleating, and screaming.

Newly born giant panda cubs will make loud noises to indicate that they are uncomfortable or hungry. Giant panda mothers respond quickly to the calls of their cubs and respond to their requests.

When giant pandas are frightened or angry, they will roar like a dog.

When they are in a happy mood or courting a mate, giant pandas will also make a "bleating" sound similar to the cry of sheep.