chomp. Deep in a forest in China, a giant panda eats. She sits on the ground. Stalks of bamboo fill her lap. She liſt s a bamboo stem and sniff s it. She


Snap!


looks it over. T en she nibbles its green leaves. Finally, she takes a bite. T e hard stem snaps with a loud crunch. T e panda peels off the bamboo’s tough outer layer with her sharp teeth. T e peels pile up on her stomach. T en she nibbles the soſt inner layer of the stalk. T e giant panda is so busy eating that she


doesn’t notice the other animals around her. Golden pheasants scratch at leaves and twigs on the ground. Musk deer wander by. Golden snub-nosed monkeys chatter in the treetops. A misty rain starts to fall. T e rain doesn’t


bother the panda. She has thick, oily fur that keeps her warm. It’s waterproof. She needs it. Her forest sits high in a mountain range. It’s oſt en cool and wet in these mountains. As the rain pours down, she keeps chewing.


Eating a Lot to Get a Little Like most bears, a panda is an omnivore.


Sometimes, this panda will catch and eat small rodents. Yet she mostly eats bamboo. T is plant doesn’t have many nutrients in it.


So she must eat a lot of bamboo to get enough energy to survive. She may spend more than 12 hours a day eating. In that time, she may eat up to 36 kilograms (80 pounds) of bamboo. T is may seem like an odd diet for a bear.


Yet the giant panda has adaptations that help her survive on bamboo. She has an unusually long bone in her wrist. It works a little like a thumb. It helps her hold bamboo stems. She also has sharp front teeth. T ey can bite


through tough stems. Her large molars crush and grind the bamboo. Special bacteria in her intestines help digest it.


This giant panda carefully carries her newborn cub in her mouth.


19


Crunch. Chomp, chomp,


A New Arrival Aſt er a full day of chewing and chomping, the


sun sets. T e forest grows dark and quiet. T e panda finishes one last bite. She is finally done eating for the day. It’s time to rest. Pandas oſt en sleep where they eat. T ey


don’t usually look for shelter at night. Tonight is diff erent, though. Something special is about to happen. She needs a safe, dry place to give birth to her cub. T e panda shuffles over to a hollow tree.


She squeezes inside. T e tree is dry, warm, and dark. It makes a good den. In the morning, a small sound comes from


the hollow tree. It is the cry of a panda cub. T e cub is pink and has a light fuzz of white hairs. He can’t open his eyes yet. He’s tiny, too, about the size of a stick of butter. His mother is about 900 times larger.


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