GAINT PANDAS

                 PHYSICAL DESCRIPTION

        The giant panda, a black and white bear, has a body typical of bears.It has black fur on ears, eye patches, muzzle, legs and bears.The rest of animal’s coat is white.It is about 1.5 metres long.Male pandas may reach 115 kg.Female ones usually smaller than male pandas.Sometimes they reach 100 kg.The gaint panda’s thick,wooly coat keeps it warm the cool forest of its habitat.

         The gaint panda’s tail,measuring 10 to 15 cm, is the second longest in the bear family.The gaint panda typically lives araund 20 years in the wild up to 30 years in captivity.

                            LIFE SPAN

           Scientist aren’t sure how long gaint pandas live in the wild, but they are sure it’s shorter than lifespans in zoos.Chinese scientists have reported zoo pandas as old as 35.A female named Jia Jia is oldest gaint panda ever in captivity and the oldest gaint panda still living in captivity at an age of 37, as of July 2015.There are only about 1.000 gaint pandas left in the wild.They are classified as Endangered.

                               DIET 

          The gaint panda is a solitary animal, which spends about two-thirds of its day feeding and the remainder resting.Although classed as a flesh-eater, the gaint panda feeds almost exclusively on the stems,leaves and fresh young shoots of bamboo.

          There are about 20 different species of bamboo that pandas will eat.Howeverbamboo is so nutritionally poor that the pandas have to consume up to 20 kg each  day, which can take up to 16 hours.

                    BABY GAINT PANDAS

                 When gaint pandas are born, they are tiny, blind and pink with few hairs.The average weight is 100 g, only 1/900 of their mother’s weight.The limbs of newborn pandas are so weak that they are not able to stand at all.For 2 months after birth, baby pandas basically only feed on milk, sleep and poo.

BEYZA KOÇAK

10-E

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