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Why do panda bears eat bamboo?

Why do panda bears eat bamboo?
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Key Info
  • Why do panda bears eat bamboo?
  • Duration: 02:58
  • The panda bear is a carnivore but is well adapted to eat the bamboo which grows in its habitat. The panda has huge and powerful jaw muscles for crushing stems. It eats for 14 hours a day, the stomach processing half its own weight of bamboo each day but digesting only a sixth. The panda can roll bamboo perfectly by gripping it with the equivalent of a human thumb. It knows the location of every bamboo grove in its neighbourhood.
  • Subject:

    Science

       Topic:

    Living Things in their Environments: Adaptation

  • Keywords: Darwin, adaptation, survival, panda, bamboo, stem, jaw, carnivore, Darwin's Album
Ideas for use in class
  • Resource to support pupils' independent research on pandas and adaptation. Resource to support Science or Literacy topics, use as a model for technical vocabulary linked to non-chronological report writing. Use as a resource to develop pupil note-taking.
Background details
  • Clip language : English
  • Aspect ratio : 16x9
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