Giant panda cub in Bifengxia Panda Base, Sichuan, China

© Suzi Eszterhas/Minden Picture

Info. Giant panda cub in Bifengxia Panda Base, Sichuan, China

This giant panda cub looks to be waving hello from the Bifengxia Panda Base, a research and breeding facility in Sichuan, China. Today, there's about 1,900 pandas left in the wild, living in mountain areas of central China, plus another 400 pandas in captivity. Bamboo makes up 99 per cent of a panda's diet, and it must eat upward of 12 kilograms of the woody grass each day to meet its dietary needs and maintain its cuddly girth. Male giant pandas can register over 125 kilograms on the scale; females tend to be 10-20 per cent smaller than males. This bamboo dependence presents the giant panda with a difficult situation, since human development continues to invade the bamboo forests of pandas' natural home.