wal_172619/Pixabay
–
Long ago, the ancestors of the giant panda were omnivores. They eat animals and plants.
–
Nationalgeographic.co.id—at a glance, panda giant looks like herbivore. animal it spends most of its time consuming bamboo. However, their bodies were created like carnivore.
a Education explained that about half of the calories they consume come from protein.
That amount of protein is equivalent to that of wolves, feral cats, and other animals that depend on meat for survival. Herbivores, on the other hand, get less than a quarter of their calories from protein.
“It’s absolutely amazing,” said David Raubenheimer, a nutritional ecologist at the University of Sydney who conducted the research. The giant panda does not look like any herbivore but is very much like a carnivore.
Long ago, the ancestors of the giant panda were omnivores. They eat animals and plants. It is supported by the digestive system and gut bacteria to carry out metabolism. They have umami taste receptors, to sense the savory taste of meat.
But between 2.4 million and 2 million years ago, things began to change. The gene for the giant panda’s umami taste receptor is deactivated. Their jaws and teeth evolved to help them crush bamboo. The wrist bones turn into “pseudo thumbs” to help grip the stems of their favorite plants.
Scientists theorize that this change in food types is due to the abundance of bamboo plants. This makes pandas do not have to fight with other animals for food. Bamboo is high in fiber but has a low concentration of nutrients. Therefore, pandas must eat as much as 9-19 kg in a day to survive.
Raubenheimer and his colleagues are learning more about this extreme herbivore way of life. They installed GPS on the two giant pandas and followed their movements throughout the year.
From the reconnaissance, the researchers found that the pandas followed the protein. Between August and April, pandas forage in the lowlands of China’s Qinling Mountains.
At the beginning of the cycle, these animals feed on the leaves of Bashania fargesii until they have a chance to eat the young shoots. These young shoots contain more protein. The more shoots that grow, the more protein the fiber will dilute.
PROMOTED CONTENT
Featured Videos
–
