According to a new scientific report, the giant pandas have not yet adapted to this diet, which poses a difficult digestive problems.
The website mBio in the United States, announced that after having examined 45 giant pandas for a year, unexpectedly discovered that these animals have a “completely different digestive system to other herbivores “.
The pandas still keep in their gut bacteria that used to facilitate their carnivorous diet when they were omnivores.
” Unlike other herbivores that have made their digestive systems evolve to deconstruct fiber plants, the giant panda still uses a typical carnivorous intestinal transit. “
The giant panda spend 14 hours a day eating an average of 12.5 kilograms of bamboo but only digest about 17% of what they consume.
“It is an unexpected result and quite interesting, because it implies that the gut microbiota perhaps is not adapted to this unique diet, and puts the pandas in an evolutionary dilemma,” said one of the coauthors of the study, Xiaoyan Pang of the Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Xinhua reported.
The giant pandas live in the mountains of northwestern China, and are known for their very low birth rate, making them a species under threat extinction.
No comments:
Post a Comment