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This guide is designed to accompany the video "Giant Pandas: The Science of Finding Food." Some
sections are more appropriate for use after viewing the program, while others are independent of the
program and can be used at any time.

Objectives:
1. Introduce basic facts about giant pandas. See Panda Facts on page 2
2. Assess information learned on the video about giant pandas and the foraging
experiment.

Habitat Awareness can be used before and after watching the video.
Objectives:
1. Review "habitat" and "endangered" definitions.
2. Jump start discussion or individual research on conservation issues. Assessment
items: Three discussion questions on conservation can be used in class, small group or
individual settings.

Culture can be used before or after watching the video.

Objectives:
1. Offer cross-curricular studies in Chinese art, history, and literature.
2. Provide activities in cross-curricular studies using the giant panda as a central figure.

Behavior Study & Be A Scientist Worksheets should be used after watching the video.
Objectives:
1. Learning about the scientific process. Every scientist uses the scientific method when
conducting an experiment. What is the scientific method?
o Make an observation.
o Ask a question about something you've observed.
o From that question, form a hypothesis where you predict the answer to your question.
o Create a method to test your hypothesis. Make observations and record data according
to the method you created.
o Analyze the data.
o Form a conclusion about whether your prediction was confirmed or not.
2. Conduct experiments using the scientific process.

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Panda Facts:
3. Giant pandas have lived for millions of years in China's bamboo forests. They have become
uniquely adapted to feeding and reproducing in this habitat. Human disruption of the bamboo
forests has put them in serious danger of extinction.
4. Giant pandas spend most of their time doing two things, eating and sleeping.
5. A panda's life revolves around bamboo. Ninety-nine percent of its diet comes from this plant.
6. Bamboo is a tough plant to chew and digest, but pandas are built to take on the job. A panda's
thick, heavy skull, massive jaw muscles, and powerful teeth help it to eat bamboo as easily as you
eat celery.
7. Giant pandas bite off pieces of bamboo with their molars, or back teeth. Their molars are seven
times as big as human molars.
8. A panda has a tough esophagus and thick stomach walls to protect it from sharp bamboo splinters.
But bamboo is 90 percent indigestible plant material. To get adequate nutrients from the bamboo,
pandas must eat a lot of it. Because of this, they need to have access to huge areas of it in the wild.
9. Pandas have a false "thumb"; it is really an extension of the wrist bone. (Humans have a true
opposable thumb.) When it holds bamboo, a panda presses the shaft against the sixth "digit" of its
paw. It can't wrap the false thumb around an object as humans do.
10. In the course of a year, pandas will mate only during two or three days in the spring. They may
encounter other pandas at different times of the year but will not mate.
11. A female panda doesn't look pregnant, even when she is about to give birth. Her cub is so small
that she doesn't gain any weight.
12. A female panda will bear one or two clubs. Twins are common, but one usually dies. The cubs
generally have a high death rate (about 50 percent in the wild). A newborn cub is very small,
weighing only about the same as a stick of butter—around four ounces. Weak and fragile, it is
completely dependent on its mother.
13. A panda cub will stay with its mother until it is about two years old. A panda reaches maturity in the
wild at age five or six.
14. Pandas may look cute, but they are wild animals and therefore can be dangerous. Giant pandas will
defend their territory with their long claws and sharp teeth.

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Habitat Awareness
Definitions

healthy habitat:
A healthy habitat is a place where a living thing can find food, shelter, water, mates, and a place to
raise young.

healthy panda habitat:

A healthy panda habitat would be a temperate forest that has bamboo, since that is their largest
source of food; some kind of shelter, like a cave, hollow tree, or grotto; and a place to raise their
young. Not only are these elements important, but the size of the habitat is important, too. A healthy
panda habitat would need enough space to allow the pandas to find enough bamboo of the correct
mix of species and find unrelated mates.

endangered:
An endangered species is a species with so few individuals left that it is in danger of extinction. The
giant panda is endangered because of human encroachment on habitat, habitat destruction due to
logging and other human activities, and the fragmentation of the remaining habitat into small
isolated patches. Learn more about the panda's habitat.

Think About It!

1. What have you done to lessen your impact on your environment?

2. Over the course of a year, a giant panda's home range can extend from a couple of square
miles of habitat to as many as 15 square miles. In order to save giant pandas from extinction,
their natural habitat must be preserved. What can you do to help giant pandas survive in the
wild?
3. Could a panda live in your neighborhood? Why? Why not?
4. Compare your answer with Lisa Stevens' answer in the video. We asked her the question,
"Could the giant panda live on the East Coast of the United States?"

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Calligraphy
The word calligraphy comes from the Greek words kale and graphe meaning beautiful writing. In
China the use of calligraphy dates back to the 12th century B.C.E. Today there are two forms of
calligraphy used in Chinese writing: the simplified form used in China and the traditional form used
in Taiwan. Since the giant pandas are from China, we have chosen to use the simplified form.

Special thanks to Huchen Zhang for creating the calligraphy representations.

Literature
According the Friends of the National Zoo's magazine Zoogoer, the giant panda first appeared in
literature more than 3,000 years ago in The Book of History and The Book of Songs which is the
earliest collection of Chinese poetry. There are many stories about pandas, but our favorite is the
ancient legend about why pandas have their distinctive black and white coats.

How Did Pandas Get Their Markings?

There was a time long ago in the bamboo forests of China when giant pandas were all white. One
day a certain panda, while sitting contentedly and browsing on a bamboo branch, was attacked by a
hungry leopard. A brave shepherdess named Losang, who was guarding her flock nearby with her
three sisters, heard the terrified panda and rushed to save it.
But the four shepherdesses and the panda together were no match for the leopard. News soon
spread that the lives of the panda and all four of the shepherdesses were lost in the big cat's attack.
The other pandas living high in the mountains soon discovered that one of their kin had died and
that the four shepherdesses had perished trying to save him. They ambled down into the valley, crying
all the while, to attend the funeral. The pandas all wore black arm bands to show their grief.
As the pandas wept, they rubbed their eyes, grabbed their ears, and hugged each other. The dye
from the arm bands, wetted by their tears, began to run. Soon the pandas' white coats were stained
dark around their eyes and ears and in big bands across their bodies. Every panda born since that time
has carried these same markings on its coat.

Activities:
1. Calligraphy: Try your hand at recreating some of the calligraphy used in this section
2. Literature: Write a poem about the giant panda using food as the theme.
3. Art: Create a habitat conservation poster using the giant panda as the focus. Show the giant
panda in its habitat and include the images that depict why the giant panda habitat is
disappearing.

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 BE A SCIENTIST

Animal Behavior Checksheet

Kind of Animal: ___________________________ Animal Age: Young or Adult (circle one) Other Identification Notes:
______________________________
Study Location: ___________________________ Date: ___________ Time Started: ______ ______________________________
______________________________
Weather: Sunny or Cloudy or Rainy (circle one) Temperature: _____ ______________________________
______________________________
______________________________
______________________________
EATING/ SOCIAL ______________________________
ANYTHING
TRIAL MOVING RESTING CAN’T SEE ______________________________
DRINKING ACTIVITY ELSE
1 ______________________________
2 ______________________________
3 ______
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
Total =
Percent =

Directions: Watch the animal for 5 minutes. At the end of each 30 seconds, check off the activity that you see the animal doing. You will end up with 10 check marks.

BEHAVIOR DEFINITIONS
Moving When an animal moves from one location to another.
(Includes climbing, walking, running, jumping)
Resting When an animal is not changing location (includes
sleeping, sitting, standing)
Eating/Drinking When an animal eats or drinks
Social Activity When an animal is interacting with another animal
(includes playing, chasing, grooming, fighting, breeding)
Can’t See When an animal is out of view
4414 Holborn Avenue
Anything Else When an animal is doing something not listed above Annandale, VA 22003
800.233.3277
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____________________________________________________________________________

BEHAVIOR STUDY

Definitions
Moving When an animal moves from one location to another.
(Includes climbing, walking, running, jumping).
Resting When an animal is not changing location. (Includes
sleeping, sitting or standing).
Eating/Drinking When an animal eats or drinks.
Social Activity When an animal is interacting with another animal.
(Includes playing, chasing, grooming, fighting,
breeding).
Can’t See When an animal is out of view.
Anything Else When an animal is doing something not listed above.

Date Trial Moving Resting Eating/Drinking Social Activity Can’t See Anything Else

Time Started 1

Study Location 2

Animal 3

Animal’s Age Young Adult 4

Study Location 5

Weather Sunny Cloudy Rainy 6

Temperature 7

10

Total

Percent

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Giant Pandas: The Science of Finding Food