Scientific Description Giant Panda

Animal Natural History Fact Sheets

Giant Panda
Ailuropoda melanoleuca

General Characteristics: Biology

Adults of this solitary species have well-defined home ranges and rarely meet, except during mating season. During this time, pandas signal their presence by marking trees and banks with scent secreted from glands located beneath the tail. They will also strip bark and occasionally males will dust bathe; dust particles become covered with the pandas' scent and then float into the air. Males also vocalize during this time.

Mother and Baby

Females give birth to a cub that is born in an extremely immature stage of development; weighing only a tiny fraction (0.001%) of their mother's weight, about the size of an adult rat. The female cares for her cub in a den located in the base of a hollow tree, or in a cave, and young pandas remain completely dependent on their mother for a year. During this time, females may leave their cubs to forage for days at a time. Cubs usually stay with their mothers for 1.5-2.5 years.

Cubs are born with sparse white fur on pink skin. The cub's skin will start to turn gray 1-2 weeks later in the areas where the black hair will eventually start to grow. Within a month they will have black ears, eye patches, legs and shoulder band just like their mothers. During the first weeks of life, mothers never leave their baby. They hold and hug the baby against their warm body, protecting them from harm. Captive panda mothers do the same thing. If you see a mother panda licking her baby, she is probably helping the baby pass feces or urine. At about six to eight weeks of age the cubs will open their eyes and their baby teeth will erupt. Cubs become mobile at approximately three months of age. The mothers will play at times with their tiny cub by tossing it back and forth between their paws, rolling the cub around or wrestling with it.

Breeding Behavior

During the breeding season, giant pandas will spend time with each other (while the rest of the year they are solitary). In spring, males and females seek each other out to mate. Giant pandas rely heavily on their sense of smell. They use their nose to forage for food as well as for communicating. Scent-marking plays a vital role in communication among giant pandas. It creates a type of community bulletin board for all who pass by. Pandas spray urine which can be detected by other giant pandas and is believed to be unique to each giant panda the same way as a fingerprint is unique to each human. It is also believed that the scent can be used to distinguish the sex, age, breeding condition and other important messages to other pandas. The information may be detected for up to four months. Increased frequency of scent marking signals the coming of estrus (the period of maximum sexual receptivity of the female). Peak estrus lasts from one to three days, and gestation varies from about 81-198 days (in captive giant pandas).

During the mating season males attempt to ward off rival males by doing what is known as a hand-stand scent mark - the male supports himself on his forelegs and urinates or rubs secretions from his anal glands on an object. This is thought to intimidate other males. Common theories suggest the reason for this is the higher the male can scent mark, the larger the male must be, thus hopefully scaring off smaller males.

Courtship begins with the female squirting urine as a signal for males. Males will then follow the scent to the female. The males will gather around and compete for access to the female. During this time, pandas are highly vocal. The males bark and roar as they try to intimidate each other, and courting pairs emit a goat-like bleating sound.

Through a process known as delayed implantation, the fertilized ovum divides a few times and then floats free from the uterine wall and its development is suspended. Sometime in June or July, the embryo will re-attach itself to the uterine wall when the growth process will begin.

Social Behavior

Giant pandas are by nature solitary animals, most of the time avoiding direct contact with others. Even in captivity, rarely will you see adults play with each other. Recent studies have found that pandas live in overlapping territories and may encounter each other during non-breeding season. Scientists believe that the pandas are familiar with their neighbors by their scent marks, urine and feces. Animals that are solitary usually depend on a food resource or other habitat resource that is in limited supply. Giant pandas need access to a great deal of bamboo and cannot afford to share.

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