Giant Panda Facts
for Kids

Giant pandas evolved from carnivorous ancestors and technically still have a carnivore's digestive system, but over millions of years they shifted almost entirely to bamboo, likely because it was abundant and other competing predators avoided it. Bamboo makes up about 99% of their diet, supplemented occasionally with other plants, eggs, or small animals.

The most recent national surveys count more than 1,800 giant pandas in the wild across China's Sichuan, Shaanxi, and Gansu provinces, up from roughly 1,100 in the 1980s. This recovery led the IUCN to downlist the species from Endangered to Vulnerable in 2016, though habitat fragmentation remains an ongoing threat.

Giant pandas face habitat loss from agriculture, logging, and infrastructure that fragments their bamboo forests into isolated patches, making it harder for pandas to find mates and food. Bamboo also periodically dies off in mass flowering events, which can leave isolated populations without enough food. Decades of reserve creation and reforestation in China have driven the recent population recovery.

An adult giant panda eats between 12 and 38 kg (26–84 lb) of bamboo per day, spending 10 to 14 hours actively feeding. Because their digestive system extracts so few nutrients from bamboo, they have to eat almost constantly and move relatively little to conserve energy.

No — unlike bears in colder climates, giant pandas do not hibernate. Because bamboo is available year-round in their mountain habitat, pandas simply move to lower, warmer elevations during winter rather than storing fat and sleeping through the season.