Julie Bowers, age 11, of Keen, N.H., for her question:
SOW LARGE IS THE GIANT PANDA?
One of the rarest of all large dammals is the giant panda. This handsome animal can grow to be six feet long and weigh as much as 400 pounds. The panda resembles a bear but it is not even in the same family.
The giant panda looks like a bear because of its short legs and tail, large paws and its massive head with small ears. It has very thick fur that is usually white on the head and back and black on the back legs, sate and eye patches. A band of black extends from its forelegs across the shoulders.
You'll find the panda living wild is bamboo forests high in the mountains of the Chinese provinces of Szechwan and Kansu. Some also live in Tibet.
Most of the time the panda stays on the ground and finds shelter in hollow tree trunks or caves. However, it can climb tress and sometimes does just that when in danger.
The panda is classified as a carnivorous mammal, which mesas that it is a meat eater. However, it will only rarely eat small mammals. Most of the time the panda's menu features bamboo roots and shoots. From time to time it also eats other plants.
It wasn't until a little over 100 years ago that the panda was known to Americans and Europeans. A French missionary named Pare David received two of the animals from hunters in China in 1869. And a woman named Ruth Harkness brought the first giant panda to the United States in in 1937. It went to the Brookfield Zoo in Chicago, I11. Also, a few others went to other zoos.
Because relations were not good between China and the United States for many years, no new pandas were brought to U.S. zoos. The last one died at the Brookfield Zoo in 1953.
Then two pandas were presented to the National Zoo in Washington, D.C., in 1972 by the Chinese government. Other pandas have since visited U.S. zoos.
The giant panda's scientific name is Ailuropoda melanoleuca. This animal and one called the teaser panda (Ailurus fulgsas) are both members of the family Procyonidae, the same grouping to which raccoons belong.
The lesser panda actually looks a bit like a raccoon, where the giant panda definitely doesn't.
The lesser panda grows to be only about two feet long. It has thick fur in shades from dark brown to rust. White markings are found around the eyes, ears and muzzle.
Lesser pandas live in the wilds of northern Burma, Sikkim and Nepal. Also, they can be found in the same areas inhabited by the giant pandas.
Lesser pandas eat bamboo, grasses and acorns. From time to time they also eat small birds and mice. They live and travel in small family groups.