Bamboo is the favorite food of round and plump giant pandas, which leads to the suspicion that these innocent guys must be the cutest herbivores in the world. Wrong! The panda is a member of the veritable carnivore family, classified as the order of Carnivore of mammals, and is a vegetarian among carnivore. Looking at the face of the giant panda, it is different from herbivores like deer and horses, right? This is a "bear face"! Modern carnivores evolved from two branches of ancient carnivores: one is cat-shaped, such as tigers, leopards and other felines, and civet; the other is canines, such as today's dogs, wolves and other canines, as well as bears, raccoons, ferrets, etc., the giant panda belongs to the latter. In terms of physical structure, giant pandas have sharp canine teeth, and their digestive tract is also the structure of carnivores. Generally speaking, since plant fiber foods are difficult to digest, the digestive tracts of herbivores are relatively long in order to fully digest them. For example, deer intestines are about 15 times their body length, and sheep intestines are about 25 times their body length. However, the intestines of giant pandas are only 4 to 6 times their own body length, while the proportion of the intestines of carnivores is generally 4 to 8 times. Giant pandas use the intestines of carnivores to digest bamboo, which is obviously inappropriate, resulting in a particularly low nutrient absorption rate. Therefore, they have to eat a large amount of bamboo to maintain their body's energy needs. A giant panda eats 20 to 30 kilograms of bamboo every day in spring. So the giant pandas we saw were like hungry outlaws, chewing bamboo.
In fact, the Lufeng Eopanda more than 8 million years ago was an animal the size of a fox. After the arrival of the Ice Age, they, together with many carnivores, were driven to a very narrow area by the cold. Faced with fierce competition from its "peers", it chose a shortcut-"switch to" becoming vegetarian. About 2 million years ago, the small species of giant pandas became vegetarian. After this successful "career change", the glaciers receded, pandas developed greatly, and their bodies became larger. Even the Pasiloi giant panda, which was bigger than today's giant pandas, appeared. It was not until the arrival of the ice age 11,000 years ago that pandas shrank, became round, and became adapted to the cold environment before surviving today.
Today, giant pandas have relied on bamboo, but they also occasionally eat meat, picking up bamboo rats, poking bird nests, and sometimes having a bear temper. In 1990, a giant panda that loved to eat mutton even appeared in Sichuan. It went down the mountain to steal sheep 12 times, killing a total of 20 goats and sheep, biting 6, and even stayed in the sheeppen overnight! However, this guy ran away whenever he saw anyone and never hurt anyone. He just suffered the local government to pay for his food and drink. In addition, in 2011, another wild giant panda was found chewing the body of wildebeest cleanly.