According to The National Post, the diet of the Giant Panda consisting mostly of bamboo is leading the endangered specie to extinction. A study conducted at the Chengdu Research Base of Giant Panda Breeding concludes the gut bacteria of the modern panda is ill-suited to digest bamboo. The Giant Panda is a carnivore.
According to China Highlights, a census conducted in 2014 find that only 1864 Pandas exist in the wild. The Giant Pandas diet is 99-percent bamboo and the life expectancy in the wild is 15 to 20-years. In captivity the Panda may live up to 30 years.
Apparently, the Pandas exclusive bamboo diet with only about one-percent consisting of other plants and meat began nearly two million years ago. Unlike other herbivore species the Pandas digestive bacteria never evolved. The Panda is only able to digest 17-percent of the bamboo and spends approximately 14-hours a day munching away at the tough fibrous plant.
The study has far reaching implications for staving off the ultimate extinction of the glorious Giant Panda.
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