Panda Research Paper

Words: 608
Pages: 3

A long time ago, when pandas lived in the mountains of tibet, they were as white as snow. They were friends with four female shepherds who watched their flocks, in the mountains near the village. One day as the shepherds were playing with a panda cub, a leopard jumped out of a bush it tried to attack the cub. The shepherds threw themselves in front of the cub to save it. The shepherd died. When they went to the funeral they wore black ashes to honor the bravery of the shepherd. As the panda wept black ash got around the eye. Ever since then pandas have black marks to honor the shepherds.
Females are generally 10–20% smaller than males. They can weigh as little as 150 lb, but can also weigh up to 276 lb. Average adult weight is 220 to 254 lb.
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Bamboo is a kind of giant grass that grows up to be 10 ft. high and has very hard, thick stems. There are many different kinds. The panda breaks off a bamboo stem and sits down to eat, holding the stem in its paws. Sometimes pandas peel off the tough outer layer with it’s sharp teeth before feeding. The pandas jaw and teeth are very strong so it can chew the tough stems. Pandas have thick linen in their throats to eat the rough part of the bamboo and to eat bees. Also the linen in their throat helps from getting sharp splinters of the bamboo. Although it is such an effort to eat, bamboo is not very nourishing and the panda digests about seventeen percent of the bamboo it eats. So, in order to get enough nourishment the panda needs to eat 35-75 lbs of bamboo a day. In spring pandas feed off bamboo shoots, which are more tender. It may eat as much as 650 shoots a