This is a question from a friend in a private message. Let us follow the old rules and give the answer first: giant pandas are not only vegetarians, but the proportion of "vegetarians" is extremely high (up to 99%), and the remaining 1 % means carnivorous, so strictly speaking, giant pandas are omnivorous animals that mainly eat vegetarian food. However, among the eight existing species of animals in the entire bear family, only the giant panda has almost become a staple food. Why is this? Let’s find out together.

In the existing Ursidae, there are a total of 3 subfamilies, 5 genera, and 8 different animals. These three subfamilies are Ursinae, Giant Pandae, and Spectacled Ursinae.

Both the Giant Panda subfamily and the Spectacled Bear subfamily have only one genus and one type: the giant panda and the spectacled bear. According to scientists’ genetic comparison of the spectacled bear and the giant panda, they found that these two animals are living relatives. The two most closely related species. The remaining Ursinae is the subfamily with the most species under the family Ursidae, including Ursus, Sloth Bear, and Sun Bear. Among these three species, there is only one species in the genus Sloth Bear and Sun Bear: Sloth Bear. Bears and sun bears, there are 4 species in the genus Ursus: brown bear, American black bear, Asia black bear and polar bear. These 8 animals together constitute the current bear family.

Among these eight species of bears, polar bears are the largest. Meat accounts for the highest proportion, accounting for 98.5%. The remaining 1.5% is not grass, but seaweed washed ashore with the waves. This is the main source of vitamins and minerals for polar bears.

Then there is the brown bear. The brown bear is the species with the most subspecies in the Ursidae family. It has as many as 20 subspecies. The largest subspecies, the Kodiak brown bear, is about the same size as the polar bear. . Although the distribution and body size of brown bear subspecies are quite different, their feeding habits are basically similar. They are all omnivorous animals that mainly eat plant food, of which plant food accounts for more than 60%, and the remaining 40% is Carnivorous diet consists mainly of fish, insects, rodents and ungulates.

In addition to polar bears and brown bears, the proportion of meat can exceed 50%. %, other bears are far behind. The plant food of Asian and American black bears accounts for up to 95%, and meat accounts for only about 5%. Although the spectacled bear is the largest carnivore in the Americas, its plant food accounts for only about 5%. The ratio is between 93-95%, and meat only accounts for 3-5%. It is worth mentioning that spectacled bears prefer the fruits of bromeliads, accounting for more than 50%. The sun bear is the smallest extant bear species. Its diet accounts for a higher proportion of meat, reaching about 90%, but these meats refer to insects. The sun bear will eat more than 100 kinds of insects. It is precisely because of this , its tongue is very long and slender, which is better for licking insects. The food habits of sloth bears and sun bears are similar. During the season when fruits are ripe, the ratio of meat and vegetarian food is 1:1. However, most of the meat is insects, and sloth bears have a special liking for ants and bees. Among other things, sloth bears have a special liking for ants and bees. In the season, sloth bears mainly feed on insects.

(Sun bear’s slender tongue)

The last one is the giant panda. Bamboo accounts for 99% of the giant panda’s diet, and the remaining 1% is mainly small animals such as rats. After reading the recipes of these 8 kinds of bears, we will find that the vegetarian diet of giant pandas is not outrageous, because the vegetarian diet of many kinds of bears exceeds 90%. However, there are few bears like giant pandas that mainly feed on bamboo, because bears with a relatively high proportion of vegetarians eat a wide variety of plant species.

Why do giant pandas mainly feed on bamboo?

It is not an accident that giant pandas feed on bamboo, but it is inevitable. Why do you say this? There are three reasons:

01 It is normal for animals to be vegetarian

First of all, through our analysis of the food habits of bears, we can find that most bears eat plants. The proportion of sexual food is very high, which means that it is normal for bears to eat vegetarian food. Bamboo is also a type of plant, so giant pandas eating bamboo are the same as other bears eating plants.

02 The food choices of different bears depend on the environment and themselves

We take the spectacled bear as an example. It is the largest carnivore in the Americas, but it is up to 95% plant-based. The proportion of food is because the environment where spectacled bears live is the tropical rainforest of South America. The most abundant plants in the rainforest are plants, so compared with other foods, plants are easier to obtain. Secondly, although the spectacled bear is large, it moves slowly, is bloated, and has poor flexibility. Compared with the jaguar in the same habitat, it is much inferior. When hunting other living animals, its own energy consumption Even more than the energy that food can provide.

The same is true for giant pandas. There are almost no large herbivores in the bamboo forests where they live. The consumption of hunting other small rodents is greater than the energy provided by the prey. Therefore, they choose to remain static and eat in large quantities. Bamboo with low nutrition and crude fiber.

03 Due to the direction of evolution

Giant pandas and other bears have evolved separately as early as 8 million years ago. At that time, the ancestors of giant pandas were very small ( Like today's foxes), they were solitary and carnivorous, but their small size was no longer competitive given the rise of cats at that time. Therefore, the ancestors of giant pandas gradually increased the proportion of plant-based food. However, simply increasing the proportion of plant-based food can only reduce competition with other carnivores, but does not make itself safer. Therefore, the panda began to migrate to high-altitude mountains, because the large cats at that time (mainly saber-toothed tigers and tigers) Members of the family) mostly live in the plains. In this way, the ancestors of giant pandas began to live a life of peace with the world. However, the abundance of prey in high-altitude mountains would also decrease. Therefore, the proportion of plant foods in giant pandas' food gradually became the main part. In order to keep themselves If they are not "eating meat", the TIR1 gene of giant pandas is also inactivated. In this way, giant pandas cannot taste the delicious taste of meat and are not dependent on meat.

"All bears are "Meat-eating" is our biased understanding of bears, because although all bears eat meat, in fact, the main food of most bears is plants. Once we understand this problem, we will make no exception to the fact that giant pandas mainly eat plants. . Compared with other bears, it has a certain narrow feeding habit because of the environment in which it lives and the direction of evolution. However, judging from the fact that giant pandas have lived for more than 8 million years, their evolution has been successful.