Giant Panda Teacher Packet - Memphis Zoo

The weather in the mountains of China is usually cold and rainy but the coarse and wooly fur of thegiant panda repels water and protects it from the cold. Its fur is in a black and white pattern thathelps to break up its outline from a distance in order to confuse predators. The black and white furpattern of a giant panda does not appear on a newborn giant panda until it is about one month old.When giant pandas are born they are pure white.The giant panda eats bamboo 99% of the time. Bamboo is available all year, which is one of thereasons that giant pandas do not hibernate in the winter. A giant panda must eat about 40 pounds ofbamboo a day in order to get the nutrition that it needs. The giant panda must eat such a large amountbecause its digestive tract does not effectively absorb the bamboo and because bamboo is low innutrients. Since it has to eat so much bamboo, the giant panda has developed several adaptations foreating bamboo. The jaw muscles of giant pandas have become thick and strong to help them breakdown bamboo and as a result the jawbone of the giant panda has become massive. It has the largestjawbone in the bear family. Its back teeth are also wider and flatter than other bears. In addition tothe large jawbone and wide, flattened back teeth, the giant panda has also developed an extended andenlarged wrist bone that helps it to hold onto bamboo. It is sometimes referred to as a false thumband looks like a “sixth finger” on the giant panda’s front paws.Materials:Required:• pencilsProvided:• “Search for the Giant Panda” word search that can be photocopied• “Panda Crossing” crossword puzzle that can be photocopied• List of questions that can be photocopied and used with either the crossword puzzle orword searchProcedures:Preparation:2) Make photocopies of the word search or crossword puzzle depending on the students’preference or make enough copies of each for all the students.3) Make a photocopy of the list of questions for each student.Introduction:1) Ask the students what they thought about their visit to the China exhibit at the Memphis Zoo.2) Go around the room and see if they can each tell you one fact that they learned about the giantpandas.Conducting Activity:1) Tell the students that you are going to give them a list of questions based on the giant pandasigns they saw in the Memphis Zoo’s China exhibit. Tell them that the questions will helpthem remember what they learned about the giant pandas.2) Tell them that you are going to pass out a couple of activities that will help them answer thelist of questions.3) Pass out the photocopies of the word search, crossword puzzle and the list of questions. If thestudents want to do both of the activities, have them do the crossword puzzle before they dothe word search.4) After everyone has had enough time to work on the activity, go over the answers together as aclass.50