Bamboo Forests
Hi, today I will be writing about bamboo forests, in China. Bamboo is very well known for being the food of..... pandas! Pandas Pandas are not technically "endangered", but there are only about 1,864 left in the wild. They are amazing animals. They can eat bamboo, which is full of toxins, and is very hard to digest. However, they have a very short intestine, which made no sense to me until I learned that the microbes in their stomachs are very special. They are very fast acting, so that the panda can absorb the nutrients from the bamboo. Pandas also have five fingers, and no real thumb. A panda's wrist bone has grown larger and larger, so that they can hold bamboo easily. This wrist bone is the same one that would be at the very bottom of your thumb. However, pandas aren't the only ones who eat bamboo...... Red Pandas Red pandas are really cute, and look kind of like raccoons. Scientists used to think that they were related to weasels, then decided they were