National treasure giant panda original text

At 3:00 pm on November 5, 1980, the Berlin Airport in Germany rolled out a red carpet and hung a banner with the slogan "Warmly welcome the friendly envoys of the Chinese people." The airport was crowded with people holding flowers. Welcome crowds and reporters. The special plane from China has just landed, and the long-awaited Chinese "VIP" finally appeared: with dark circles under his eyes, black ears, and a leather robe covered with dark clouds and snow! Oh, these are a pair of giant pandas from China, named "Tiantian" and "baby." The giant panda is an animal that everyone loves. Giant pandas like to play and are very naive. Sometimes they stand upright, as if dancing; sometimes they lean on a stone, sitting on the grass and gnawing bamboo branches leisurely; sometimes they roll into a ball and roll around carelessly; sometimes they drag their clumsy bodies and stagger around on the grass. Once trained, giant pandas become acrobatic "stars". They can perform front rolls, eat Western food, play trumpets, push carts, ride wooden horses, slide and play ball, etc., often winning warm applause and joyful laughter from the audience. . The giant panda is a rare animal unique to my country and the most famous endangered animal in the world. Giant pandas are called "tapir" in ancient Chinese books. More than 2,000 years ago, in the book "Erya" in the early Han Dynasty, there was a record that "tapir is black in color and eats bamboo". Sima Xiangru, a famous writer in the Han Dynasty, listed nearly 40 kinds of exotic animals raised in Shanglin Garden in Xianyang at that time in "Shanglin Fu". The giant panda ranked first. It can be seen that the giant panda was already regarded as a precious and famous animal by people at that time. . The giant panda has a plump body, thick limbs, short bald tail, and strange coat color. Its head and body are milky white, while its limbs and shoulders are black. It has a pair of neat black ears on its head and two black eye sockets. It looks like wearing a pair of eight Glyph of black glasses. Giant pandas are handsome and docile, giving people a sense of elegance and liveliness. With the increasingly extensive friendly exchanges between my country and people from all over the world, giant pandas, as envoys of friendship, frequently visit foreign countries, causing a sensation all over the world. Many countries have the honor of receiving giant pandas as gifts from the Chinese government. The giant panda is like a bright pearl, adding Chinese splendor to the zoos in these countries. In October 1972, the giant panda "Lan Lan" donated by the Chinese government arrived at the Ueno Zoo in Japan. In the first nine months, as many as 300,000 people visited the zoo every day, forming a "panda fever". When "Lan Lan" unfortunately died of illness in Tokyo in September 1979, 30 million Japanese paid their condolences to "Lan Lan". The Prime Minister of Japan also gave a speech to mourn the death of "Lan Lan"! In the zoo, giant pandas have become the most favored "guests". The panda house is spacious and beautiful, with green bamboos and clear water. It is equipped with air conditioning and is well taken care of. However, the giant pandas are not used to this kind of "comfortable" life. The environment has changed, the climate is different, the range of activities has been restricted, and the food conditions are also very different from those in the wild. Feeding giant pandas is not an easy task, and breeding is even more difficult. So, what is the environment and life of giant pandas in nature? Giant pandas are now distributed in a very narrow area in my country. They are only found in Minshan, Qionglai and Liangshan mountains in Sichuan Province, the southern edge of Gansu Province and the south of Qinling Mountains in Shaanxi Province. Lushan and other high mountains with an altitude of 2000 to 3500 meters. In the sparsely populated forest area, most of the mountains are cliffs, towering into the clouds, but some have gentle slopes with continuous ups and downs. The hillside is covered with lush virgin forest. The mountains and forests are shrouded in clouds and mist, the air is humid, springs are abundant, moss grows everywhere, and a variety of bamboos are mixed among the lush plants. The giant pandas living here rely on tender bamboo and clear springs all year round, becoming "hermits in the bamboo forest". The scientific name of the giant panda is actually "Cat Bear", which means "cat-like bear". That is to say, "the essence is similar to a bear, but the appearance is similar to a cat." Strictly speaking, "panda" is the wrong term. Here's how this "wrong case" came about: Before liberation, the Beibei Museum in Chongqing, Sichuan once exhibited cat and panda specimens, with the word "cat panda" written across the sign from left to right. However, at that time, newspapers and periodicals used to read horizontal headlines from right to left, so reporters mistakenly wrote "cat panda" as "panda" in their reports. The word "panda" has been widely spread by the media, and it is difficult to correct it if it is used so often. So people had no choice but to make mistakes and call "Cat Bear" "Panda". In fact, scientists named the giant panda "Cat Bear" because its ancestors are similar to those of bears, and both belong to the order Carnivora. Later, bears kept their carnivorous habits, while giant pandas gave up their vegetarian diet, preferring bamboo most, and occasionally eating corn stalks and young fir bark.

Why is this? According to research by scientists, although the distant ancestors of giant pandas were carnivores, later, because they could not find meat, they had to eat bamboos that grew all over the mountains. Passed down from generation to generation, they developed the habit of eating bamboos. There are 17 kinds of bamboos eaten by giant pandas, among which the most popular are cold arrow bamboo and Chinese orange bamboo. However, there are not many nutrients in bamboo, mainly indigestible cellulose, so giant pandas eat a lot. An adult giant panda needs to eat at least 15 to 20 kilograms of bamboo every day and night, and excrete a large amount of indigestible cellulose. Wherever giant pandas roam, the easiest thing to find is piles of cellulose feces. However, giant pandas sometimes show their carnivorous nature and prey on animals such as bamboo rats. The activity range of giant pandas is closely related to the seasons. In winter and spring, they mostly live in valleys below 3,000 meters with no or less snow. In winter, they carry on their activities as usual and have no habit of hibernating. In summer and autumn, they are mostly active in areas above 3,000 meters. When the weather is hot, I often go to the creeks and rivers in the ravines to drink water, and sometimes swim in the water. Giant pandas have no fixed habitat and wander around, eating and sleeping wherever they go. Although it is heavy and fat, and walks unsteadily, it is quite clever at climbing trees. Its hearing is very sensitive, and when disturbed, it will nimbly climb high into the treetops and hide. Giant pandas are solitary and usually live alone. Only during the estrus period do the male and female temporarily live together. Their fecundity is very low, usually giving birth to one litter per litter, sometimes two. During the period of childbirth, holes in dead trees are often used as nests. The strange thing is that for an adult giant panda weighing more than 100 kilograms, the newborn pandas are surprisingly small, weighing only 0.1 to 0.15 kilograms, like a small mouse, which is only one thousandth of the mother's weight. Therefore, Not easy to survive. It takes about two years for a giant panda to grow from birth to adulthood. Precisely because it is difficult for giant pandas to breed and survive, there are only a handful of wild giant pandas in my country today, estimated to be only about 1,000. Under artificial breeding conditions, giant pandas give birth to cubs, which is a great event. In September 1982, the King of Spain was sleeping soundly when the phone suddenly rang loudly. The king knew that his subordinates would not disturb him in the middle of the night unless something urgent happened. When he heard the call, the king was overjoyed, because the capital Madrid Zoo reported that the Chinese giant panda "Shao Shao" there had just given birth and gave birth to twins! The king said happily: "I would like to express my warm congratulations to you!" As soon as he finished speaking, he quickly added: "Be sure to take good care of the little baby!" The next day, the good news from Spain spread throughout the world. Today, giant panda experts in China have gradually mastered the laws of giant panda reproduction, and hundreds of cubs have been born in breeding centers. The reason why the giant panda is precious is not only because of its cute body and rarity, but more importantly, because it is an ancient animal with a history of 3 million years and is of precious value to scientists studying ancient mammals. Fossil research shows that the morphology and structure of giant pandas have not changed much over millions of years. Today's giant pandas still retain many original characteristics. Therefore, giant pandas are known as "living fossils". The giant panda is my country's national treasure and has been listed as a first-level protected animal in my country. Our country has established 13 nature reserves mainly to protect giant pandas, and has adopted a series of active protection measures and careful care to save this endangered species and promote the reproduction and rejuvenation of giant pandas and the prosperity of their families.