Are Pandas Carnivores? Or Herbivores? It's Not So 'Black And White'

Giant pandas, also known as panda bears, are found in southwest China.

Pandas are considered a national treasure in China and are adored by the world. Pandas subsist entirely on diets featuring bamboo found in forests of China.

Pandas mainly live in high mountains and temperate forests. Since 1961, this bear has been a logo for WWF and that gives special significance to these pandas.

As pandas have their specialized bamboo diet, low genetic diversity, and low productive rate, they are argued to be called an evolutionary failure. The entire diet of the panda consists of bamboo leaves, shoots, and stems of bamboo species.

As their nutritional composition mainly consists of bamboo as the main food component, these animals are classified as vegetarian. Although their diets are rich in plants, 1% of pandas are found to be carnivores. Pandas have adapted to the wet habitat and cold regions.

Baby pandas rely on their mother's milk as their nutrient. The species of this bear is found in a Chinese province named Sichuan in Wenchuan Country known as Wolong National Nature Reserve.

After reading all about what do pandas eat in the wild every day, do check out how much bamboo does a panda eat and why do pandas eat bamboo?

Are giant pandas carnivores, herbivores, or omnivores?

Giant pandas are known for two things: their unique black and white color, and they are notorious for eating only one type of food. Pandas eat, and they eat a lot!

It is a safe assumption that whenever you see a panda in the wild it might be chewing on bamboo. So, it's easy to assume that pandas eat only bamboo and nothing else.

But it's not so simple; pandas have the capability to eat more than 600 stems of bamboo every day.

While it is true that giant pandas can survive on bamboo shoots, it would be wrong to assume them to be pure herbivores. These black and white bears have also been classified as a carnivore by scientists.

The digestive system which a giant panda has is not suited to a diet only featuring bamboo.

In addition to having stronger esophageal walls for ensuring protection from splinters of bamboo, the giant panda's digestive tract has intestines that are extremely short in length to be able to digest bamboo in the same manner as a normal herbivore.

The panda's internal structure is more closely related to that of a carnivore even though it consumes a plant-based diet.

Pandas must consume such a large amount of bamboo to live as a result of this, they are considered carnivores.

Why did pandas stop eating meat?

Despite being a member of the Carnivora group, these animals are vegetarians who primarily eat for their dietary requirements.

The giant panda's genome sequence highlights that the gene Tas1r1 which is in fact known to process the umami taste became inactive at some point during the panda's evolution, which made it into a pseudogene, leading to the hypothesis that the absence of umami sensitivity highlights how giant pandas transformed into herbivorous animals.

In order to verify this theory, genomes from the giant panda as well as several other animals were tested. Except for the giant panda, Tas1r1 was determined to be intact in all of these animals.

Ancient giant pandas, which lived on the Earth 7 million years ago, were omnivores.

According to scientific studies done on fossil data, the change in the diet of a panda has been found to be linked to the genome. This reduced reliance on meat for its diet resulted in giant pandas adopting a herbivorous lifestyle and did not require meat to meet their diet requirements.

However, some other systems are also at work inside giant pandas because other herbivores like cows and horses still have the Yas1r1 gene present.

The change from the omnivorous lifestyle of early pandas to the herbivorous bamboo eating habits of modern giant pandas shows that evolution is not a perfect process. The topic of the panda's evolutionary history is used in debate by scientists about its major flaws.

What do pandas eat besides bamboo?

Pandas eat bamboo but bamboo has relatively little nutritional value. Fully grown giant pandas must consume 12-38 kg of it per day in order to satisfy their energy requirements.

In terms of dietary variety, they do consume various vegetables and even meat in small amounts (approximately 1% of their total diet). Despite the fact that they are nearly completely vegetarian, pandas may sometimes search for pikas and other small rodents to supplement their diet.

Indeed, as members of the bear family, giant pandas have a digestive system that is similar to that of a carnivore, even though they have evolved to subsist nearly exclusively on bamboo.

Their diet also includes some plants. Due to this plant diet, the bear shows mixed traits of herbivore and carnivore.

As they mostly depend on bamboo shoots and leaves, they are particularly susceptible to any loss of habitat, which is presently the most serious danger to their existence. Due to this low energy content in their daily food intake, giant pandas have a very slow metabolism.

They barely get enough energy to move and reproduce.

Due to this, pandas can't even hunt prey despite having a strong physique and a bite force comparable to a tiger. While in captivity, pandas do eat meat if they are given it, but they won't hunt for prey.

What kind of meat do pandas eat?

Giant pandas are almost entirely vegetarian. The panda's diet is 99% bamboo. The remaining 1% accounts for other vegetation, fish, or small animals like a rodent or a bird.

These iconic black and white bears don't have to fight with other animals in order to get food, so they switched to eating bamboo. According to scientists, pandas switched to eating bamboo because it's extremely abundant. Typically, they rely on it and spend most of the time eating it every day.

China's Academy of Sciences has formed a nutrient profile of the diet of pandas. Fuwen Wei and Yonggang Nei spent years observing pandas.

While tracking and analyzing these pandas they have found that chemicals in different kinds of bamboo are much closer to chemicals in food of a typical carnivore. A giant panda is categorized as a carnivore as the food in its diet compensates for the protein which is found in animal products as well.

These proteins include the meat of raccoons and weasels.

Can pandas kill you?

Due to their adorable looks and docile attitude, it is easy to forget that giant pandas are in fact another species of bear. They are very strong creatures, although lazy and harmless. It is not a good idea to approach a giant panda when you spot one in the wild.

They have tremendous grips and can administer forceful bites that are powerful enough to cause serious injury to a person. Giant pandas are also excellent climbers and can even swim surprisingly well.

Even though their size is comparable to black bears they have a much stronger bite. A panda's force of bite is comparable to that of lions.

Bites by pandas can be considered a little weaker than bites caused by grizzly bears and tigers.

In a study that included 151 carnivorous animals, the panda came in fifth place. Only bites of lions (1,315 Newtons), grizzlies (1,410 Newtons), tigers (1,472 Newtons), and polar bears (1,647 Newtons) are stronger than the bite of the panda, which has a force of almost 1,300 Newtons.

Pandas can deliver a nasty bite with the same large molar teeth that they use to crush bamboo. A panda can easily kill a human if it wanted to; however, pandas are very calm and it's very rare for a panda to show aggression without provocation.

Here at Kidadl, we have carefully created lots of interesting family-friendly facts for everyone to enjoy! If you liked our suggestions for are pandas carnivores then why not take a look at are hippos carnivores, or giant panda facts?