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Giant Pandas
National
Geographic Channel spends two years following around the
nearly extinct giant pandas in their natural habitat.
Deep
in the heart of the Qinling Mountains,
a lush natural
divide between north and south China, a camera
crew is on the lookout for
the elusive giant panda.
These pandas live at an elevation
of 1,500 meters and higher, so the trek
up the steep slopes is
treacherous. The bamboo is very thick, but soon
the crew discovers panda droppings,
signaling that the giant pandas
are close by. At 3,000 meters, the team
comes across their first
breakthrough when they
finally see a giant panda after searching for 10 days
without luck. Giant Pandas is an
intimate portrait of the secret and complex
lives of China's most famous residents. The crew spends
two years battling the rugged terrain
and dealing with the
temperamental moods of these highly
endangered species.
At birth, a giant panda is pink, nearly hairless,
blind, and small enough to fit
into a human hand. Female pandas have to raise
their cubs alone and make sure their
babies are warm, clean, and fed, sometimes
suckling a newborn 14 times a
day. When winter comes, giant pandas
are protected from the
cold by their slightly oily fur that
keeps them dry and holds in heat. If a female panda has
a cub, she must search for
shelter to protect her young one
from the cold. In Giant Pandas,
filmmakers encounter a
mother and her three-month-old cub in a cave, where the
small panda is trying to walk so it can soon follow its
mother on outings to gather food.
Bamboo makes up 99
percent of a giant panda's diet. Since bamboo grows in
the winter, giant pandas do not need to
hibernate. In one day alone, giant pandas
consume nearly 18 kilograms of bamboo, which would be
the equivalent of a human
eating 40 loaves of bread. Watch
Giant Pandas on National Geographic Channel this
month and learn all about the lifestyle of one of the
most specialized mammals
in the world. |
