Peaceful Pandas are a Chinese Treasure

Although they are officially classified as carnivores, pandas live on a diet of primarily bamboo shoots, which they claw out of the ground with their giant paws. Pandas are often portrayed sitting upright in grassy fields or trees, holding bamboo shoots in their paws and eating them. Although this image has encouraged the belief that pandas are cute, peaceful creatures, if provoked or threatened, a panda would become as agitated and dangerous as any other bear.

Chibi Panda Background courtesy of Photobucket

During the 1970s, when China was closed to outside trade, Giant Pandas were offered as loans to American and Japanese zoos, a practice then known as 'panda diplomacy'. Though not currently being used as diplomatic tactic, these panda loans were an important marker in cross-cultural relations between China and other nations. In 2005, the People's Republic of China offered two pandas to its disputed territory, Taiwan. The two pandas' names, Tuan Tuan and Yuan Yuan, when put together mean 'reunion', and the gift was seen as a step forward in relations between the two regions.

The Giant Panda is, sadly, an endangered species. The biggest threats to the survival of pandas are habitat loss and a naturally low birth rate, both in the wild and in captivity. Historically, pandas also suffered at the hands of Western and Chinese poachers, as their coats garnered a high price on illegal fur trade markets.

Scientists believe that there are now about 3,000 pandas living in the wild, a figure that was estimated using a method of tracking DNA through the pandas' droppings. In combination with the hundreds of pandas living in reserves within China and abroad, the figure is not nearly as dire as was thought several years ago. Although the overall population of the species is increasing, the beloved Giant Panda remains on the endangered species list.

Kung Fu Panda (Widescreen Edition)