Giant panda Facts for Kids
Ailuropoda melanoleuca · eye-lur-OP-uh-duh mel-an-oh-LOO-kuh
A bear with a special wrist bone that works like a thumb.
- 🏃 speed: not yet checked
- ⚖️ 351 lb159 kg1
- 📏 3.9 to 5.9 ft1.2 to 1.8 m1 long
- 🎂 15 years15 years1
- 🍽️ plants
- Needs help (Vulnerable)
Giant pandas are black and white bears. They eat bamboo almost all day. Baby pandas are tiny and pink.
A giant panda eats bamboo for most of the day, even though pandas belong to the bear family. It holds the bamboo with a special wrist bone that works like a thumb. Newborn cubs are pink, tiny and blind, and they grow fur and learn to climb as they get older.
Giant pandas live in cool, misty mountain forests in China, where bamboo grows thick. Bamboo gives little energy, so a panda eats for much of the day and rests a lot. Pandas do not hibernate: in winter they move to lower, warmer slopes instead. Giant pandas were once endangered, and China's panda reserves now protect their forests and link them together, so the number of wild pandas has grown, though the species still needs help.
How big is a giant panda?
Giant panda in numbers
| Length | 3.9 to 5.9 ft1.2 to 1.8 m1 |
|---|---|
| Height at the shoulder | 24 to 35 in60 to 90 cm2shoulder height on all four legs |
| Weight | 351 lb159 kg1up to |
| Top speed | no checked number yet |
| How long it lives | 15 years15 years1in the wild; captive pandas have lived well into their twenties |
| What it eats | bamboo, mostly, and sometimes other plants |
| Where it lives | the cool mountain forests of central China |
| What kind | Mammals |
| Is it in danger? | Needs help (Vulnerable)3 |
A number we couldn’t find on a page we trust says so, instead of guessing.
Wow!
- Newborn pandas are pink and blind.
- Pandas do not hibernate.
- Pandas bleat like lambs.
Compare the giant panda
Friends and neighbours
Koala
Grizzly bear
Polar bearThree questions
Books about the giant panda, free at the library
Ask a grown-up to tap the button: it shows where to borrow a book about the giant panda for free.
Where these numbers come from
- US Fish and Wildlife Service, Giant Panda species page, checked 30 October 2026.
- Smithsonian's National Zoo, Giant panda, checked 30 October 2026.
- Wikidata, from the IUCN Red List, checked 30 October 2026.
- Wikidata, Giant panda (Q33602), checked 30 October 2026.