The Giant Panda By Brody Wood

Imagine you are in the bamboo forest. It’s cold. All you can see is bamboo trees. Suddenly you see a cute female panda caring for her cub. This panda is so adorable and awesome. Unfortunately, this species has only 1000 left of its kind.

The panda is so adorable with it’s shaggy fur, short tail,and plump, round body. The black and white markings make panda so cute. The male panda weighs 187 to 275 lbs. and the females weigh 157 to 224 lbs. The panda is 5 to 6 feet long. The panda has strong teeth and a sensitive nose and ears. The panda can run, swim,and leap better than any gold medalist in the world.

The young panda stay with their mother for 18 months to 2 years. during those 18 months are up the mom looks after and protects her cubs. When the cubs are six, they leave to mate. Pandas live up to 25 years in the wild and 30 years in captivity.

When pandas mate, they usually mate in the spring. Before the babies are born, the mother finds a cave or a hollow tree and lines it with bark or bamboo. The mother panda usually has one or two, but rarely three babies, but if there is more than 1, she will only care for one and let the others die. After having her babies, she waits two years before she mates again.

Pandas live in the bamboo forests. Bamboo is the only food that they eat to survive. If you ever want to go see the bamboo forests, they are in southern China in the mountains that are 3,300 to 13,000 feet above sea level. In the bamboo forests the panda can keep to themselves and be safe predators.

Because the panda lives in tiny isolated parts of China, it makes it harder for them to mate. There are only about 1,000 left in the world. There are very few left because people cut down bamboo to make paper and houses and it never grows back because they cut the roots. Poachers hunt pandas because their skin is worth a lot of money and they believe that the skin is magical.
People are helping the panda. The government has created reserves so pandas can live in peace. If found with a panda skin, a person will be sent to jail or life put to death. Scientists are trying to make bamboo grow faster. There are more ways to help the panda like the WWF organization which helps all animals especially the panda. Please help by donating money to this organization.

Works Cited
Claybourne, Anna. Animals Under Threat: Giant Panda. Chicago: Heinemann-Raintree, 2004. Print.
Help The Giant Panda !!!!!!