Panda Diet
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Despite it's classification as a carnivore, the giant panda's diet is primarily herbivorous. Pandas mostly eat bamboo. However the Giant Panda still has the digestive system of a carnivore and carnivore-specific genes. The panda still has large teeth like many canivores. The panda get little energy and protien from eating bamboo. It's ability to digest cellulose is because of the microbes in it's gut. The average Giant Panda eats 20 to 30 pounds of bamboo a day. The shape of the panda's head is an adaptation to it's bamboo diet. The Giant Panda's round face is a result of powerful jaw muscles to chew it's food. Pandas eat any of twenty-five bamboo species in the wild, such as Fargesia dracocephala and Fargesia rufa. Only a few bamboo species are widespread at the high altitudes pandas now inhabit. Bamboo leaves contain the highest protein levels; stems have less. Given this large diet, the giant panda can defecate up to 40 times a day. Pandas will also eat meat, fish, and eggs when available.Pandas in the wild will occasionally eat other grasses, wild tubers, or even meat in the form of birds, rodents or carrion.