If you haven’t seen a panda in real life, you’ve definitely seen this black-and-white bear in a movie or game.
Yes, giant pandas are bears—their ancestors have roamed China for 8 million years.
These ancient bears almost vanished. Thanks to China’s conservation efforts, in China’s mountains, 2,000 pandas still live wild and free.
The biggest panda zoo in the world is in Chengdu, with 200 pandas. In Mexico City, Xin Xin is the longest-living panda outside China—thanks to Mexico City’s climate, so similar to Chengdu.
2 million years ago, pandas gave up meat and switched to bamboo. Why? Chengdu’s mountains are full of bamboo, and no other animals wanted it. So, no competition. Smart.
But bamboo is hard to digest. That’s why a panda’s schedule is: eat for 13 hours, sleep for 10, play for 1… and yeah, they poop all day—40 times! Eat. Sleep. Shit. Repeat. What a life!