Giant pandas

Yuan Meng: Scheduled departure for China…

It’s official, Yuan Meng is going to China, heading to the Chengdu breeding base to ensure his own descendants. At almost 6 years old, the young panda, the first baby born in France in August 2017, will therefore leave the territory of the Heights of China at the beginning of July. The announcement of his departure aroused great emotion because he has amazed visitors and Beauval teams since his birth. But it’s a half-surprise because it was always planned that he would leave one day… It’s now confirmed, all that remains is to prepare a very nice “goodbye” for him within the ZooParc, worthy of his rank, of the first little giant panda born on French soil… Good luck Yuan Meng!

An unusual food adaptation

A vegetarian carnivore!

The giant panda lives in the mountainous regions of China, at altitudes of 1,500 to 3,400 metres above sea level. Although it is classified as a carnivore, it almost exclusively eats bamboo shoots. Its digestive system, however, is still that of a carnivore; it therefore has a limited ability to digest the cellulose in bamboo, which happens to also be very poor in energy. To compensate for this low energy intake, the giant panda eats up to 20 kg of bamboo each day and spends almost 14 hours a day feeding. The rest of the time, it conserves its energy by sleeping for 10 to 20 hours a day!

Pandas, icons of species conservation

The giant panda is one of the most iconic species in biodiversity conservation. Once classified as “Endangered”, it is now considered “Vulnerable” on the IUCN Red List. Conservation efforts carried out over several decades have helped improve its status, although the species remains threatened, particularly by habitat fragmentation.

Since the arrival of the first giant pandas at Beauval in 2012, Beauval Nature has supported a conservation programme in China focusing in particular on the breeding of the species, the reintroduction of individuals into their natural habitat, and the scientific monitoring of reintroduced pandas.