2. Cell structure and Function The Giant Panda weighs about 165-350 lbs and are about 4-5ft in length. They have scent glands under their tail. Even though their vision is bad, their sense of smell is very good. Panda’s have wool-like under fur, and above that there is a thick and coarse layer of their outer fur. The fur is oily because it helps to protect the panda from their habitats damp and cool conditions. How bad is a pandas vision? To test this, you could cover up the panda’s sense of smell, and then you could see how long it takes them to find food just by sight from a certain distance.
3. Reproduction Pandas reach breeding maturity between 4 and 8 years. Their reproduction rate is low, since they like to be by themselves for most of the year. The panda can only have cubs every Females give birth to either one or two cubs after five months, but they cannot care for both of the cubs because the mother is not able to produce enough milk. If the panda changed it’s diet so that it ingested fat, would the mother be able to produce enough milk to care for both of the cubs? To test this, you could give a panda in captive a diet of mostly fish and small animals to increase their fat intake. Then you could see if they could provide enough milk for both of the cubs to survive.
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5. Heredity The panda passes down its white and black markings down to their cubs. The markings of each panda can be a little different. There is a rare version of the panda, and it is brown and white. How did this kind of panda end up being brown and white? To investigate this, you could look at the DNA of the panda and it’s parents, and you could see what part of it caused them to be brown and white instead of black and white.
6. Evolution This animal has gone through a great amount of evolution. They were a part of the Carnivora, but now they are almost fully vegetarians. Because of this, their dental structure and digestive tract has evolved so their intestine can take nutrients out of all the bamboo they eat. To protect the panda from splinters from bamboo, the throat has changed so that it now has a tough lining. Why don’t pandas eat much meat anymore? To find this out, you would have to go back and find out what they did eat, and the time that it changed. Then you would have to find out what happened during that time of change. This could lead you to a reason as to why they don’t anymore.
7. Interdependence The Giant Panda does not like to interact much with its own species, let alone other animals. Though they do depend greatly on the flowering cycles of Bamboo, since it is about 99% of their diet. When bamboo flowers, it dies. When this happens in one big area, pandas have to move to areas where there is available bamboo. Due to the human population expanding, and the panda’s habitat shrinking, this gets harder and harder as time goes on. If a panda didn’t have bamboo, is there anything else that they could eat live on? To test this, you could give pandas a diet of only fruits, birds, or small animals. Then you could see if their health remains the same, or gets worse.
