Courtney Lopez, age 7, of San Antonio, Texas, for her question:

HOW MUCH DOES A GIANT PANDA WEIGH?

The giant panda is a large, black and white bear like animal. It grows to be from three and a half to five feet long and has a short tail. Most giant pandas weigh from 200 to 300 pounds.

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 feet. Often they eat while sitting upright with their hind legs stretched out in front of them.

 A bamboo shoot is the chief item on the giant panda's diet. In the wilds, you'll find the animals living on the upper mountain slopes of southwestern China and eastern Tibet. It also occasionally feeds on fish and small rodents. A giant panda may eat as much as 20 pounds of food in a single day.

The giant panda can grasp objects between its fingers and a so called "extra thumb." This thumb, which is a bone covered by a fleshy pad, grows from the wrist of each forepaw.

Pandas use their true thumbs as fingers.