Save the Panda Foundation is a non-profit organization formed to ensure the preservation and propagation of the Giant Panda. The mission of Save the Panda Foundation is to raise and provide monies for research, breeding programs, veterinary care and medicines, exchange programs with zoological foundations around the world, habitat preservation and enhancement and education programs to increase public awareness of the Giant Panda as a highly endangered species, in order to prevent the extinction and ensure the continuing existence of the Giant Panda.
Panda Information
The Giant Panda is one of the most delightful and captivating of animals, yet one of the most endangered species in the world. The best scientific estimates place the total number of all pandas at only 1,590. The giant panda is listed as endangered in the World Conservation Union's (IUCN's) Red List of Threatened Animals. There are about 1,600 left in the wild. More than 160 pandas live in zoos and breeding centers around the world, mostly in China.
· Pandas are first mentioned in Chinese books written 2,500 years ago, but they weren't seen by a European until 1869. In 1936, Su-Lin at the Chicago Zoo was the first living panda to be brought out of China.
· Pandas' primary food is bamboo, but since their digestive systems can absorb only a little of the nutrition, they have to eat over 30 pounds a day. Pandas like the taste of young bamboo sprouts which have even less nutrition. If they eat only these, they must eat over 80 pounds a day.
