About The Habitat Of Giant Pandas ( Panda Bears )

Learn about the kind of habitats that Giant Pandas live in. The giant panda has lived in bamboo forests for several million years.

Where Do Giant Pandas Live In The Wild?

Giant pandas live in a few mountain ranges in central China, in Sichuan, Shaanxi, and Gansu provinces. at one time giant pandas lived in lowland areas. However, due to increased farming, forest clearing, and other development giant pandas now only live in the mountains.

What Is A Giant Panda's Habitat Like?

Giant pandas live in broadleaf and coniferous forests that have a dense understory of bamboo.

The habitat of a giant panda is usually at elevations between 5,000 and 10,000 feet.

These mountainous habitats are usually covered in a heavy clouds most of the year. That is because of the torrential rains and dense mist that is there most of the year.

Streams & Rivers In The Mountainous Habitats Of Giant Pandas:

Since bamboo doesn't provide enough water for giant pandas to survive they also drink fresh water daily from rivers and streams. Those rivers and streams must be really cold since those streams and rivers are fed by snow that has melted high up in the mountains.

How Much Does It Rain & Snow In The Habitats Of Giant Pandas?

These mountain forests in central China get around thirty to forty inches of rainfall and snowfall during the year.

What Is The Temperature Like In Habitats Of Giant Pandas?

It is usually cool to cold.

Just a side note: Giant pandas, in the four US zoos that have them, do not usually let the panda bears into their outside exhibits if the temperature is over 85 degrees. If you watch the pandas closely you can see that even in the 85 degree temperature they are uncomfortable. you will see them laying in their pools or searching for shade.

Are The Habitats Of Giant Pandas All Together?

No. This is a problem. More and More during the past decades human populations have moved into areas that had been giant panda habitats. This has pushed giant pandas higher into the mountains and has disconnected areas where giant pandas living in the wild.

That means areas that once were large areas where giant pandas could move back and forth through their territories are now instead smaller areas that are separated from each other by human development such as villages, towns, cities and farms.

Why Is That A Problem?

For a species to remain genetically diverse it much have a large gene pool. When giant pandas cannot get back and forth from one habitat area to another, it means the only males and females in that habitat area will eventually have the risk of a smaller gene pool.

It is also a problem because it means that the only two or three days each year that female giant pandas can get pregnant there may be be any males close by. Thus a year goes by that the female cannot have a baby, which means fewer giant pandas being born in the wild and those that are are from a less diverse gene pool.

Do Giant Pandas Hibernate?

No, giant pandas do not hibernate, however, they do descend from their mountainous habitats to lower areas where it is a little warmer during really cold parts of the year.

The Greatest Threats To The Giant panda's Survival In The Wild:

Degradation and habitat loss are the greatest threats to the survival of the giant panda in the wild. their habitats are steadily shrinking and what habitat is left is defragmented That means the habitats left are now separated and the giant pandas cannot get back and forth to from one area to another.

Poaching is another threat to the giant panda bear's survival in the wild.

What Is Habitat Defragmentation?

As logging (often illegal logging) strips away the giant pandas habitat instead of a big sprawling area their habitats are left only as small isolated patches of habitat that are separated by farming land. Those remaining patches of habitat are often high mountain ridges surrounded by land now being occupied by humans. The pandas are then trapped in a small habitat unable to cross the humanized area to get to other wild areas of habitat.

Why Is Defragmentation Of their Habitat Such A Problem?

Not only does defragmentation of the wild panda's habitat decrease the opportunities for breeding which reduces the number of wild giant panda births but it also reduces the diversity of the DNA gene pool.

Defragmentation of the wild panda's habitat causes other difficulties in the survival of pandas in the wild. One of those threats is because bamboo stands have periodic large scale die-offs. that means that all bamboo of a kind dies off every so many years. When that happens wild pandas need to move to another area where bamboo is plentiful or they will starve.

When the bamboo in the isolated habitat pandas live in dies off and they cannot move to another habitat, then the pandas starve and die off, too. When their habitat is so defragmented they cannot move to where the bamboo is so they starve.

Another threat to the giant panda is that their body parts, just like those of the wild tiger, has long been used in traditional Chinese medicines.

Poaching is a threat as well. Poachers set traps for other animals such as musk deer. Wild giant pandas get caught in these traps and die.

When more giant pandas in the wild die then the number of wild pandas being born the overall wild population decrease, thus bring the already endangered species closer to extinction.

What Do You Mean Bamboo Stands Die Off & Why Does It Matter?

The way bamboo normally reproduces is that it sends shoots out under the surface, thus replenishing itself, providing plenty of bamboo for giant panda populations to survive on. However, periodically bamboo will instead reproduce by flowering to produce seeds. After the flowering the bamboo dies. This often happens in huge areas all at the same time.

It takes up to two or three years for the seeds to produce new bamboo. Since bamboo is 99% of the wild panda's diet, they must be able to move to a new area where they can get bamboo or they will starve. when their habitats are separated by human development they cannot move, thus they starve to death.

An example of this happening is back in 1974 through 1976, the umbrella species of bamboo flowered and died off over a huge area as did other species of bamboo in the Min Mountains that wild giant pandas depend on for their survival. as a result of that mass bamboo die-off it is reported the estimated number of wild giant panda deaths is 138.

Do Giant Pandas Have Dens Like Other Bears Do?

No, the giant panda does not occupy the more long term dens like other bear species do. giant panda bears often use hollow trees, gaps in rocks and sometimes caves.