Giant+panda

=__GIANT PANDA__=

What is black, white and Chinese? Pandas of course, but regardless of that fact, they are still loved by everyone. Their cute little eyes and lovely round body melt the hearts of both the young and the old.

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Giant pandas are black and white bears that live in the lush bamboo forests in the mountain ranges of central China. It can be be easily recognised because of its thick black and white fur, which keeps it warm in the cold mountains during the winter. Scientists are not sure why pandas have such unique furs. Some have suggested that the coloring makes the panda less noticable when it is trying to hide from predators.

They are one of the best known animals and have become the symbol of endangered species and WWF. Even though everyone knows what a panda is, there are only as few as 1600 of them living in the natural enviroment.



DIET
The giant panda’s diet mainly consists of bamboo. Nevertheless, pandas are genetically carnivores, which means they have the digestive system of a meat-eating species. Because of this, the pandas have to eat enormous amount of bamboo each day, since they do not derive too much energy from a single shoot. An adult giant panda can wolf down up to 14kg of bamboo every day. Everybody knows that “what comes around, goes around”, and I mean literally. Since the pandas eat a lot, they are forced to defecate 40 times a day.

CUTENESS & IMAGE
Pandas are considered one of the cutest species alive. I'd verbally picture the value of a panda but it can't be done. Luckily one picture is more than a thousand words, and an awesome video clip is more than a billion!

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CONSERVATION
As adorable as the giant panda is, there are unfortunently only a few of them around the world.

The giant panda has suffered from low birhtrate and habitatloss. As there are only 1600 giant pandas in the wild nature, their homeforests are being reserved all around the world, only in China there are 40 giant panda reserves. Since being near of extinction the giant panda has gained a Unesco world heritage site designation. However, the conservation of the giant pandas has gotten some negative feedback since it has cost a lot of money to protect them. According to some experts there isn't a future for the giant pandas because of the small population. Other experts have found proof of an expanding panda population espacially in China, however, the circumstances are far from good.

If you are as worried about these lovely pandas as we are please make a donation for the organization "4panda" at "www.4panda.com/panda/donation.htm".
**Sources:** http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Giant_panda Kadir, Tuomas & Reko