Giant pandas are so big, why are the newborn panda babies so small?

Giant pandas are often nicknamed "Round Gun Gun". Although they look naive, they are actually quite ferocious and their fighting power is quite amazing. The "Iron-Eating Beast" mentioned in the legend of "The Yellow Emperor's Battle with Chi You" refers to the "Iron-eating Beast" mentioned in the legend. it. From this point of view, giant pandas have successfully confused many people with their appearance and name. Compared with the name giant panda, it seems more appropriate to call them "giant pandas". There are many amazing things about giant pandas, including the fact that the weight of cubs is only one thousandth of the weight of adult pandas. First, what does a newborn giant panda look like?

A newborn giant panda weighs only about 100 grams, which is about the same weight as two eggs. They are pink and tender all over, smooth with a small tail, pointed heads, and their eyes are tightly closed together for a long time. After about 1 to 2 months, their eyes slowly open and black and white hair gradually grows on their bodies. It is not until 3 months later, when the baby pandas learn to crawl, that they become a bit like giant pandas. Looks like it.

Everyone who has visited the Chengdu Giant Panda Breeding Base must know that newborn giant pandas are usually not allowed to be visited by people. On the one hand, this is because the mother of the giant panda is inseparable from her newborn baby. , on the other hand, newborn giant pandas are very weak and need careful care.

The weight of a panda as an adult can reach 200 kilograms, which is nearly 1,000 times that of a newborn giant panda (0.2 kilograms). You must know that polar bears and giant pandas belong to the Ursidae family, but the weight of a polar bear mother is only that of a newborn polar bear. 400 times the body weight. Among mammals, the average weight ratio of mother to newborn is 26:1, and for humans it is roughly 20:1 (calculated based on mother weighing 120 pounds and newborn weighing 6 pounds), so in this regard, giant pandas are indeed among mammals. The only special case that is similar to it is the kangaroo. The weight of an adult kangaroo is about 100 kilograms, but a newborn kangaroo only weighs 5g (0.01 kilograms). Second, why do newborn giant pandas look like that?

Some people jokingly call the process of giant pandas from birth to growth: How to grow a little mouse into a big cat? Although it is a joke, it is very vivid. The special features of newborn giant pandas have always been a matter of great concern to zoologists, but there is no conclusion. One theory is that "newly born giant pandas are actually premature babies."

Zoologists came to this conclusion by studying giant panda babies that died in infancy. In the 1980s, five giant pandas were born at the Smithsonian International Zoo in Washington, USA. Unfortunately, They failed to grow up smoothly and died shortly after birth. Their skeleton specimens are still stored in the zoo's warehouse. Among them, the skeletons of two giant panda babies are well preserved and have become rare research materials.

After scanning the skulls of the two giant panda cubs, researchers found that compared with many other mammal cubs, especially grizzly bears, polar bears, and brown bears in the same family as the giant pandas , the skeleton of the giant panda baby shows obvious "incomplete development". In other words, although giant panda babies are born at full term, their bones are not yet complete, their organ functions are not perfect, and their metabolism is still very low, just like babies who were born about three months prematurely.

This also explains another phenomenon, that is, in the first few months after the birth of giant panda cubs, giant panda mothers basically take care of the babies every step of the way, holding them in their mouths when moving. , and also need to lick the child's body to help it defecate. Only in this way can the young and weak giant panda baby survive.