10 cute and amazing panda curiosities

It doesn't take much more than just looking to fall in love with a panda, right? Indeed, most of us humans are easily enchanted by the cuteness of these animals. Even so, there are many facts about them that are not so well known, and some may make you even more attracted to the beauty of such charismatic bears. Check out!

1. Little ones

Newborn pandas are the smallest mammals relative to their mother on earth. The size range of babies for mothers is 1/900. They fit in the palm of a human's hand, and little ones don't have the ability to see, which makes them even more vulnerable.

2. 99% vegetarians, but that 1% ...

Yes, don't be fooled, but they don't only feed on bamboo, as it usually seems. Although this plant constitutes 99% of the diet of these animals, wildlife members also usually consume small rodents and even musk deer cubs.

3. ... or is it the other way around?

Even with the well-known bamboo-based diet, panda's digestive system is much closer to that of a carnivore than a herbivore. Even with vegetables or small rodents, they always make use of the molar, which is the largest tooth of a carnivorous mammal in the world.

4. Eat and sleep

These animals have an extremely inefficient digestive system. As a result, pandas spend 10 to 16 hours a day eating. In the remaining time, they just sleep and rest.

5. Sit down to eat

Pandas have a unique way of eating and remember the way we humans sit on the floor. This is so that they can hold the bamboo with an adaptation also unique in the animal kingdom: a "big toe", which is a prolonged bone of the wrists.

6. Sedentary, but not so much

Despite their quiet and peaceful lives, where they only have to worry about eating and sleeping, they have great climbing and swimming skills. Pandas can climb up to 4, 000 meters in the mountains after food.

7. Antisocial

Pandas are the height of solitude. Trying to be alone, they use their keen nose to smell and avoid contact with other animals of the same species.

8. Different from bears

The numerous differences between pandas and other bears made them long believed to be related to raccoons. However, according to the Smithsonian National Zoo in the United States, they can be as dangerous as other nearby species.

9. If it were not for human intervention, they would be extinct

The extinction problems caused by the invasion of cities to their natural habitats exist, but pandas also suffer from the difficulty of relationship. Females are only open for breeding for 2 or 3 days a year. In addition, captive specimens are still reluctant to cross. In order to solve this, the people in charge of the shelters place pornography and give animals Viagra to try to correct the problem.

10. Human efforts have been rewarded.

The Bifengxia Pandas Center in China is at the forefront of the fight against species extinction. Since 2004, they breed captive pandas safely. Another specialized Chinese organization is also doing the work, but even more ambitiously, trying to introduce the bred animals into the wild. The dedication of these and other nature reserves has grown the world's panda population by 17% since 2003.