Giant Panda (Ailuropoda melanoleuca)

iant pandas are bears that live in the mountains of central China, famous for their docile, bumbling natures. Nearly 100% of their diet is in bamboo, which they spend most of their awoken day eating. They are capable of eating so much bamboo because they have a short, straight digestive tract that easily digests sturdy plant matter. Interestingly, after much confusion regarding the taxonomy of giant pandas, it has been settled that they are in fact bears, but are also a more basal type of bear than the other bear species alive today. They retain a number of characteristics in common with ancient bear ancestors, making giant pandas “living fossils” of sorts. Unlike other bears, their young are born very small and hairless, and undergo much of their physical development after birth.