Why do giant pandas only eat a specific kind of bamboo?

This preference is unfortunate for many reasons. Because pandas have short digestive tracts and lack special bacteria and protozoans that herbivores use to break down cellulose, pandas garner a dismal amount of nutrition from bamboo. read more

The researchers found that pandas maintain a complicated food choreography over the course of a year. In the spring, pandas switch from the leaves of one kind of bamboo, wood bamboo, to its shoots, which are rich in nitrogen and phosphorous. read more

Bamboo is not very nutritious, so giant pandas and red pandas need to eat a lot of it each day. A single giant panda eats over 4,500 kg of bamboo each year!" "Giant pandas have a diet that consists almost completely of bamboo. read more

In June, the wood bamboo shoots had matured and contained fewer nutrients, so pandas migrated to higher elevations and started eating young arrow bamboo shoots. However, both species’ shoots had low calcium levels, which pushed pandas toward the next dietary shift in mid-July: young arrow bamboo leaves, which are rich in calcium. read more