Panda Files: "Just The Facts"

They seem pretty quiet, but giant pandas can bleat, roar, growl, and honk.

Giant pandas are technically carnivores, but they have adapted to live mostly on bamboo. They will eat small mammals if they can catch them, though!

Like other types of bears, giant pandas are curious and playful, especially when they’re young. In zoos, they like to play with enrichment items like piles of ice or sawdust, puzzles made of bamboo with food inside, and different scents like spices.

Giant pandas have unusually thick and heavy bones for their size, but they are also very flexible and like to do somersaults.

The People's Republic of China sent two giant pandas, Basi and Yuan Yuan, to the San Diego Zoo for a 200-day loan in 1987. More than two million people were able to view the pandas during their stay.

On August 21, 1999, Bai Yun gave birth to Hua Mei, the first giant panda born in North America to survive to adulthood. Millions of people around the world watched Hua Mei grow up via the Zoo's Panda Cam.

In 1979, the Zoo began working with Chinese zoos to help many of China's endangered animals, including red pandas, takins, and Manchurian cranes.

A panda narrator is at the panda's main viewing area daily to share the latest news and to answer guests' questions about the "bamboo bears."
Bamboo is grown on Zoo grounds and at several off-grounds locations to supply the pandas with their daily meals.