🐼🐼National Panda Day🐼🐼

What's not to love about these fun balls of fluff, which is why they are one of the most loved animals in the world.
Yet, like almost every other animal, they face extinction due to bamboo (their main diet) now growing further up the mountains and loss of habitat. 

These wonderful creatures have been around for almost 20 million years, and, despite general belief, they are bears belonging to the Ursidae Bears, but do have a lot in common with Racoons.   
Their diet is mainly bamboo. Although they evolved as meat eaters, they are vegetarian and need to eat a lot of foliage to get enough energy and nutrients to survive. 

Only 2-3 thousand pandas are left in the wild and a few hundred in captivity, so these animals need help to survive and not become extinct. It would be an awful loss if they did. Fortunately, they were moved to the vulnerable list in 2016, but more work is needed to make them safe. 

They do not have a great reproduction record as the female is only fertile 2-3 days a year, and there is very little success in breeding them in captivity, although work is always in progress on this subject. 

To celebrate today, you could learn more about these fantastic animals, or you could adopt one through WWF or Pandas International. 
Y0u can also buy panda souvenirs from these places, and the money helps towards saving these wonderful, funny and gorgeous creatures.

So, today, post all things Panda related and let's have some Panda fun!