Giant pandas are obviously carnivores, why do they eat bamboo?

Speaking of giant pandas, many people will think of his cute and honest appearance, as a national treasure of our country, the cute giant panda has become one of the synonyms of our country. In the zoo we can see that the giant panda is either eating bamboo, or sleeping, sometimes even coquettish with the keeper, many people are impressed by its simple appearance, thinking that it is a gentle animal, but in fact, the giant panda's combat effectiveness is very strong, the sharpness of the teeth is second only to the crocodile, it seems to be very inconsistent with the image of it eating bamboo, many people wonder, why the giant panda has such sharp teeth, only eat bamboo and do not eat meat?

Pandas were very powerful in ancient times.

It all starts with its ancestors. According to records, pandas appeared earlier than humans, and 8 million years ago, there was an animal very similar to pandas, and humans called it "the first panda". Since it evolved from a bear, even though it was not as tall as the current giant panda, it still had a very strong attack power in the ancient period of fierce struggle.

This attack power has not completely degraded with the evolution of nature over hundreds of millions of years.

Since then, in the evolution of nature, giant pandas have many food competitors, and many large creatures will choose to eat other weak animals. Although the giant panda is very aggressive, we can also see that it does not bother to compete with other animals today, so in ancient times they also changed their eating habits and began to eat plants. Since the energy replenishment of plants is not as good as that of carnivores, we can see that the giant panda is in a state of eating all the time.

Pandas have very hard teeth and can eat bamboo constantly.

Bamboo is very hard, and we can hear a very crisp sound when the pandas eat it. And the reason why the giant panda can eat such hard bamboo is because of its teeth and jaw. The muscles around the panda's mouth are very hard.

And its teeth are very large, which determines that it can eat these hard bamboos in a steady stream without the slightest pressure. Instead, these hard bamboos become easier to digest after being chewed by the teeth.

Although pandas are now vegetarians, bamboo does not have the same energy as meat, which means that it is more difficult for female pandas to nurse their young. Many newborn red pandas weigh just over 100 grams. Breeders are very dedicated when they nurse their young.

Therefore, we can see that the giant panda is not born vegetarian, due to the continuous evolution of the natural environment, it has also slowly changed its living habits, as a national treasure of our country, the giant panda has also been effectively protected. I believe that with the joint efforts of the keepers and all of us, the giant panda will be able to survive freely in the limited territory, better breed offspring, and continue to reproduce on the earth. What do you think about giant pandas?

During the Pleistocene epoch, 2.4 million years ago, the climate turned colder, forcing animals at higher latitudes to migrate south for survival. Exotic carnivores compete with native carnivores for survival resources, leading to the extinction of many native species. The ancestor of the giant panda, the first panda, is an omnivore that mainly eats meat, but when it has nothing to do, it also likes to cut bamboo shoots to change the taste.

Alien species have taken over their habitats and snatched their prey, so the giant pandas have no choice but to hide in the mountains and take bamboo, a staple food that is usually a staple food.

Because they have been bred in captivity by humans for a long time, they have gradually become accustomed to eating bamboo.

Because giant pandas have a large number of fresh caterpillars in their stomachs, their digestive tract contains high levels of amylase. In the feces of giant pandas, cellulosis breaks down to produce methanobacteria.

Giant pandas have evolved to eat only bamboo and no meat, and the specific reasons are as follows:

1. In the wild, compared with other foods, bamboo is widely distributed and easy to obtain, and there are few competitors for grabbing food with giant pandas.

2. Chinese scientists have completed the genome sequencing of giant pandas, and the results support that giant pandas should belong to a subspecies of the carnivorous order Ursidae. Over millions of years of evolution, it lost a gene called T1R1 and has since stopped eating meat and bamboo instead.

In fact, at the beginning, giant pandas mainly ate meat, but later with the change of environment, giant pandas will eat bamboo in order to adapt to the environment.

The giant panda is the only mammal of the genus Giant Panda in the carnivorous order Ursidae, which has lived on the earth for at least 8 million years, and is known as a "living fossil" and a "national treasure of China".

In the middle and late Pleistocene, there were drastic changes in the natural environment such as large areas of glaciers in the Qinling Mountains and the mountains south of it, especially after the Quaternary glacial period about 18,000 years ago, the giant pandas left in Sichuan and Gansu can only live by gradually changing their eating habits, and in the process of long-term adaptation to the environment, the giant pandas have changed from carnivorous to bamboo-eating, and their molars have become particularly wide, suitable for grinding bamboo fibers.

The first is that meat is not easy to obtain. After a long evolution, the giant panda, which feeds mainly on bamboo, has become relatively bloated, and the bloated size is obviously not conducive to the hunting of giant pandas. To put it simply, the physical exertion of the giant panda's hunting is much greater than the energy it provides to hunt its prey.

The second is the genetic problem of the giant panda itself. According to the research of scientists, due to the long-term lack of meat **, and mainly feed on bamboo, the giant panda has now lost an important gene T1R1, strictly speaking, it is not lost, but this gene is inactive, and the inactivation of this gene makes the giant panda unable to feel the umami of meat even if it eats meat. Eventually, the giant panda no longer likes to eat meat.

In the middle and late Pleistocene, there were drastic changes in the natural environment such as large areas of glaciers in the Qinling Mountains and the mountains south of it, especially after the Quaternary glacial period about 18,000 years ago, the giant pandas left in Sichuan and Gansu can only live by gradually changing their eating habits, and in the process of long-term adaptation to the environment, the giant pandas have changed from carnivorous to bamboo-eating, and their molars have become particularly wide, suitable for grinding bamboo fibers.

Pandas are carnivores, why do they still eat bamboo?

Hello, although the main diet of giant pandas is bamboo, their body structure is an out-and-out carnivore, and due to the mismatch between their body structure and food, they have a very low utilization rate of plants, but fortunately, their food is widely distributed enough and is easily revived so that they can get enough food without having to migrate long distances. This, combined with their large size, allows them to deter other predators, allowing them to run without having to spend energy. I hope it can help you, I hope you can give a like, thank you for your support and trust in the platform, thank you.

The giant panda doesn't seem to have adapted to this new diet, as we mentioned above, its digestive system.

Carnivores are still preserved.

The basic characteristics. Therefore, although they like to eat bamboo.

But only 17% of the nutrients are absorbed by them, and most of them are not absorbed and are eventually excreted. To get enough energy from 17% of the nutrients, pandas need to eat nearly 25 kilograms of bamboo per day. As a result, giant pandas eat 12 out of 24 hours a day.

Giant pandas are accustomed to eating bamboo, but their hunting skills are not unfamiliar. Insects, birds, and rodents.

It's all on Panda's menu. They like to eat a species called bamboo rats.

of creatures, it likes to burrow into the roots of the bamboo and then pull it down. Therefore, giant pandas eating bamboo rats can not only solve the food in front of them, but also ensure that their staple food is not plundered and destroyed. When it comes to carnivores, many people think of those four sharp canine teeth in their mouths.

Canine teeth can be used to cut the throat or spine of prey during predator hunting, giving the prey a fatal blow. For carnivores, the sharpness of their canine teeth largely determines their success in hunting. Unfortunately, canines do not meet the requirements for carnivores, as many vegetarian animals such as hippos and primates have a lung.

Gorillas, all have sharp canine teeth. Its canine teeth, interdental spaces, and entire digestive tract are indistinguishable from those of other bears. And giant pandas also have sharp bamboo toes, and giant pandas are quadrupeds. Pandas are classified from zoology.

If you look at it, it is still a carnivore, because its digestive tract, teeth, etc., all show the basic characteristics of carnivores.

The above is a detailed interpretation of the problem, I hope it will help you, if you have any questions, you can leave me a message in the comment area, you can comment with me, if there is something wrong, you can also interact with me more, if you like the author, you can also follow me, your like is the biggest help to me, thank you.

Although the giant panda loves to eat bamboo, it also eats meat, and it is also a large mammal, so it is classified as a carnivore.

Because the giant panda used to be a large carnivore, and later chose to eat bamboo in order to survive, it will be classified as a carnivore.

Because giant pandas can also hunt and are also meat-eating animals, they are classified as carnivores.