What animal is black and white and eats bamboo?

Pandas - Ailuropoda melanoleuca (Scientific name)

Pandas, they're adored around the world, with it's black and white fur, interesting diet and cute characteristics, who wouldn't love a panda?
With movies featuring pandas such as, of course, a well-known movie, Kung Fu Panda.

Photo link 

So why are pandas fur black and white?

Photo by Ricky Patel from UCDAVIS

It's possible that they got their colour as the result of their poor diet of bamboo since they get small nutrition and calories - and the inability to digest a wider range of plants. This means that pandas can never store enough fat during winter. 

The purpose of the white part of its body; face, neck, belly, and rump, is to hide from predators, both in the snow and in the shadows. The large black circle around its eyes are for helping pandas to recognise each other. The black ears that the panda has may help to signal predators for aggression. 

Where do pandas live? What do they eat?

Pandas mainly live in temperate forests high in the mountains of southwest China, it's a place where they can survive by their own, away from human predators; hunting. It's also where they get their food from which is bamboo. They must eat around 26 to 84 pounds of bamboo every day, depending on the bamboo they're eating.

How many pandas are there in the world?

There are a total of 1,864 in 2014, but as of in 2019, there were 2,000 in China in their native habitat according to the zoo. They changed from endangered to vulnerable. 

How many types of pandas are there?

There are three types of pandas, one is a big panda and has black and white fur which is the Ailuropoda melanoleuca. 

The other one is small, brown and fawn Ailuropoda melanoleuca qinlingensis. 

Another one is called red panda a native mammal in the Himalayas and south-west China Ailurus fulgens

Weight: Majority of pandas weights around 220 - 330 pounds

The life cycle of panda

Newborn

• Giant pandas are born tiny, it weighs about 100g or 4 ounces.
• The mother panda cradles her tiny cub in a paw and doesn't leave the den for several days after giving birth.
• The cubs will soon develop grey furs which will become coarser, the furs then become black and white in a month.

Cubhood

• The cubs would start eating bamboos around six months, they would be fully weaned in between 8 to 9 months
• Cubs easily die in the wild because they're small and defenceless, therefore they have to eat in their den for four hours a day
• Pandas weigh about 45kg at one year

Living independently 

• Panda cubs grow quickly, they stay with their mama cub for one and a half to two years
• They would be fully grown by now, weighing up to 150kg 

Maturity

• Giant pandas are able to breed at four to six years old (females at four and males are six) 
• Female pandas normally bear one cub every 2 or 3 years from 4 to 18 years old.
• Female live their partners after mating and rear their cubs alone
• Female pandas are only fertile once for two to three days a year

Reproduction

• Giant panda gestation is 3 to 5 months 
• Cubs are usually born in late summer in hidden hollow trees or natural dens, where branches, dry grass and etc are made into nests
• Normally giant pandas give birth to a single cub. Even if a female has two cubs, she would normally choose to take care of one and abandon the other

(Due to the low birth rate and vulnerability of cubs, pandas are on the verge of extinction)

Sources: 

https://www.worldwildlife.org/species/giant-panda

https://www.livescience.com/58206-why-pandas-are-black-and-white.html

https://time.com/4693913/pandas-black-white-study/

https://www.ucdavis.edu/news/why-pandas-are-black-and-white/

https://www.chinahighlights.com/giant-panda/life-cycle.htm

Feel free to ask questions :)