Jeffrey Salazar
Despite their classification as carnivorans, giant pandas are primarily herbivores, with 99% of their diet consisting of bamboo. They eat a lot of bamboo—between 26 and 84 pounds per day—to compensate for its low nutritional value. Pandas have a preference for bamboo shoots, which are rich in starch and have a high protein content, but they also eat bamboo stems, roots, and leaves. They occasionally eat meat, usually in the form of carcasses, and sometimes bamboo rats and other small rodents.
| Characteristics | Values |
|---|---|
| Diet | 99% vegetarian |
| 1% meat and other foods | |
| Food Sources | Bamboo roots, shoots, and leaves |
| Fruits (especially apples) | |
| Vegetables (e.g., carrots, pumpkins, kidney beans, wheat) | |
| Small animals (e.g., pikas, bamboo rats, rodents) | |
| Carrion | |
| Eggs | |
| Pig bones | |
| Farmland foods (e.g., domestic pig food) | |
| Water Sources | Rivers and streams |
| Bamboo shoots (contain 60% water) | |
| Daily Food Intake | 9-14 kg or 20-31 lb of bamboo shoots |
| 23-38 kg or 50-84 lb of bamboo | |
| 40 times a day |
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What You'll Learn
Bamboo is 99% of a panda's diet
Despite their classification as carnivorans, giant pandas are primarily herbivores, with bamboo making up over 99% of their diet. They eat around 12 to 15 kg of bamboo leaves and stems, or 23 to 40 kg of bamboo shoots per day. This amounts to 10 to 16 hours of feeding daily.
Pandas have evolved to subsist on bamboo, which is widely distributed and available all year round in the wild. They prefer to eat bamboo shoots, which are rich in starch and have a high protein content of up to 32%. In the spring and summer, they eat different kinds of shoots; in autumn, they eat the leaves; and in winter, they mainly eat bamboo roots. They also eat other types of bamboo, including arrow bamboo, black bamboo, and 'water bamboo', as well as about 20 other species.
The giant panda's digestive system is typical of a carnivore, so the remaining 1% of their diet can include eggs, small animals, and carrion. They occasionally eat meat, usually carcasses, and sometimes bamboo rats. They also eat fruits (especially apples), vegetables, and fungus.
Pandas play an essential role in the bamboo forests of the Yangtze Basin by spreading seeds as they roam, increasing vegetation.
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They eat 26-40kg of bamboo daily
A panda's diet consists mostly of bamboo. They eat a lot of bamboo—26 to 40 kg per day—to compensate for the limited energy content of their diet. This equates to 50 to 84 lb or 9 to 14 kg of bamboo shoots per day. Pandas prefer bamboo roots, shoots, and leaves, especially shoots. They eat different types and parts of bamboo according to the season. In spring and summer, they like eating different kinds of shoots; in autumn, they enjoy the leaves of bamboo; in winter, their main diet is bamboo roots.
Pandas have a digestive system typical of a carnivore, so the remaining 1% of their diet can include eggs, small animals, and carrion. Pandas are also known to forage in farmland for pumpkin, kidney beans, wheat, and domestic pig food. They also eat fruits (they love apples the most), meat (small mammals), vegetables like carrots and ginseng, and fungus.
The giant panda is a highly specialised animal with unique adaptations and has lived in bamboo forests for millions of years. They need at least two different bamboo species in their range to avoid starvation. Pandas play an essential role in the bamboo forests of the Yangtze Basin by spreading seeds as they roam, increasing vegetation.
The quality and amount of high-quality bamboo available to eat changes seasonally. Pandas spend more time foraging in late winter and early spring when good-quality bamboo is scarcer. During the shoot season (April to August), pandas store a large amount of food in preparation for the months after this seasonal period, in which pandas live off a diet of bamboo leaves.
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Pandas have a carnivore digestive system
The panda's digestive system is more similar to that of a carnivore than a herbivore. They have a simple stomach and a short intestine, rather than the four-chambered stomachs that herbivores use to efficiently digest plants.
Pandas have a digestive tract that is not well-adapted to their bamboo-dominated diet. They lack the gut flora required to extract maximum energy from plants and have a low gut bacterial diversity compared to other animals. The panda's gut bacteria are similar to that of carnivorous and omnivorous bears but very different from other plant-eaters. They lack plant-digesting bacteria such as Ruminococcaceae and Bacteroides and instead have bacteria that are efficient at processing proteins, such as Escherichia/Shigella and Streptococcus.
The panda's inefficient digestive system could explain the animal's apparent reluctance to reproduce. Female pandas have a very short window of time in which they are able to conceive, and the embryo then goes through a period of "delayed implantation" before attaching to the uterus and starting to grow. The precise timing of conception, implantation, and birth may be driven by the seasonal availability of different nutrients in bamboo plants.
The panda's digestive system is well-suited for dealing with large volumes of food very quickly. This is beneficial as their diet is not energy-dense, so they must eat a lot of food to compensate. Pandas eat around 12 to 15 kg of bamboo leaves and stems, or 23 to 38 kg of bamboo shoots per day.
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They eat other plants and animals
Despite their taxonomic classification as carnivorans, giant pandas are primarily herbivores, with approximately 99% of their diet consisting of bamboo. They eat bamboo roots, stems, shoots, and leaves. However, their digestive system is typical of a carnivore, so the remaining 1% of their diet can include other plants and animals, such as eggs, small animals, and carrion. Pandas are also known to forage in farmland for pumpkin, kidney beans, wheat, and domestic pig food. They also eat fruits (especially apples), vegetables like carrots and ginseng, and fungus.
Pandas subsist on about 26 to 84 pounds of bamboo per day. They prefer bamboo shoots, which are rich in starch and have up to 32% protein content. In the spring and summer, they like to eat different kinds of shoots; in autumn, they enjoy bamboo leaves; and in winter, their main diet is bamboo roots. Pandas also eat herbs, vines, shrubs, and trees. They consume leaves, stems, roots, fruits, and barks in very small amounts.
The quality and quantity of bamboo available to pandas change seasonally. Pandas spend more time foraging in late winter and early spring when good-quality bamboo is scarcer. During the shoot season (April to August), pandas store large amounts of food in preparation for the months that follow, when they live off a diet of bamboo leaves.
Pandas have a shorter gut, typical of carnivores, which is not efficient at processing vegetation. This means they need to spend a lot of time eating to ensure they have enough energy. They spend 10 to 16 hours a day feeding.
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Pandas drink fresh water from rivers and streams
Pandas need to drink water to replace the water lost through their faeces. They pass food through their digestive tract quickly, in around 5 to 13 hours, and as a result, they defecate up to 40 times a day.
Pandas are well-adapted to their mostly bamboo diet. They eat around 12 to 15 kg of bamboo leaves and stems, or 23 to 38 kg of bamboo shoots per day. They also eat small amounts of herbs, vines, shrubs, and trees, as well as animal bones and hides.
The giant panda's digestive system is typical of a carnivore, and they have the ability to eat meat. However, they subsist almost entirely on bamboo. They need at least two different bamboo species in their range to avoid starvation. Pandas have a higher capability to digest starches than strict carnivores, and they have evolved anti-toxic mechanisms to protect themselves from the cyanide compounds found in raw bamboo.
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Frequently asked questions
A panda's diet consists of mostly bamboo, with over 99% of their food intake being bamboo leaves, stems, andshoots.
A panda must eat a lot of bamboo to meet its energy needs, consuming between 9 to 14kg or 26 to 40kg of bamboo per day.
Pandas also eat small amounts of leaves, stems, roots, fruits, and bark. They occasionally eat meat, usually carcasses, and sometimes bamboo rats and other small rodents.
Pandas spend 10 to 16 hours a day feeding and they defecate up to 40 times a day.
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