Where Pandas Live
The Minshan mountain ranges in China's Sichuan and Gansu provinces are home to the largest wild population of giant pandas. The Qinling moutains in China’s Shaanxi province is also home to the giant pandas. The mountain ranges form a natural barrier from the densely populated areas of China. They also contain a rich variety of plants, including many bamboo species preferred by the pandas.
What Pandas Eat
Panda’s main diet consists of the leaves, stems and shoots of various bamboo species, such as Fargesia dracocephala, Phyllostachys glauca, Bashania fargesii, Fargesia robusta and several other bamboo species. The pandas need to eat between 20 to 40 pounds of bamboo grasses per day and will also supplement their diets with other wild tubers and occasionally meat.
Moso bamboo (Phyllostachys pubescens) is native to China is often referred to as the giant timber bamboo. Moso in Chinese is Mao zhu and is the largest temperate bamboo on earth. It is known both of its wood-like qualities as well as its edible young shoots. The moso bamboo culms used by the dasso Group are grown in China’s lower elevation areas, far from the giant pandas in the Qinling and Minshan mountain ranges.
To learn more, see: All about Moso Bamboo.
Saving the Pandas
Although panda numbers in China have increased we still need to help protect their natural habitat and from poachers.
WWF Global's Help Save The Panda