Lana Buckwalter, age 10, of Camden, N.J., for her question:

HOW LARGE IS THE GIANT PANDA?

Panda is the name of two kinds of Asian animals that are quite unlike each other in appearance. The giant panda, a bearlike, black and white chubby animal, grows to be three to five feet long and weighs between 200 and 300 pounds. His namesake, the red panda who is sometimes called the lesser panda, is a small reddish brown catlike animal that only weighs from six to 12 pounds.

Both kinds of pandas live in bamboo forests on upper mountain slopes of southwestern China and eastern Tibet. Giant pandas are rare and are protected by law in China.

The giant panda has a white body with black legs and a broad black band across the shoulders. It has a large, round head; small black ears; and a white face with black patches around each eye.

Giant pandas resemble bears in shape and size and in the slow, clumsy way they walk. Like bears, they can stand erect on their hind legs.

In'1972, China gave two giant pandas to the United States. They are in the National Zoological Park in Washington, D.C.