The giant panda, one of the world's rarest animals, is also one of the most popular. With its furry black and white colouration and human-like way of sitting and eating, it looks cuddly and appealing.
The giant panda's tail is only 10 centimetres long and heavily furred. It protects the glandular area and acts as a brush for painting the animal's scent on trees to mark its territory.
The giant panda passes about nine kilograms of droppings a day. They contain large quantities of undigested bamboo branches and leaves.
Although the panda is a vegetarian, it has the structure of a carnivore, so its digestive system is less well-developed than that of typical herbivorous animals. The panda has only one stomach, while a cow has a four-chambered stomach.
Jinging, a panda from a zoo in Changsha, Human Province, died in 1994 at the age of 32, which is considered quite old for pandas, either in the wild or in captivity.
Seven of the nine pandas bred in captivity in 1993 are still living. This survival success rate is 77.8 per cent.
The giant panda's 'thumb', which is actually an enlarged wrist bone, enables it to handle bamboo stems as precisely as if it were using a pair of forceps.