Study On The Preference Of Edible Bamboo Species To Captive Giant Panda In Qinling

During long historical, Giant panda has formed a highly specific feeding behavior, with bamboo and alpine bamboo forming its primary food source. Giant Panda, Forests and bamboo mutually effect and form a co-evolution system. Forest structure and dynamics pose significant role in Giant Panda habitat. Besides this they are frequently threatened by bamboo flowering. Bamboo flowering can occur sporadically or gregariously. Survey on bamboo flowering, which signifies the death of bamboo, found that it gave threats to Giant Panda.We referred to bamboo resource in Qinling trying to select more edible bamboo species to captive Giant Panda. From the study on the preference of edible bamboo species to Giant Panda, we found Giant Panda had a wider selection of bamboo species. The significance test of difference shows that Giant Panda eat the feeding bamboo species selectively. Further, Forage ration index was used to analyze preference of edible bamboo species to Giant Panda. This includes Preference, Avoidance and Random. After this, we inquire about the mechanism of bamboo preference to Giant Panda. Through the comparison of different bamboo leafs, we found that generally Giant Panda display obvious preference to bamboo which has large leaf size and large leaf area. While to bamboo with small leaf size and small leaf area, Giant panda has little interests. The results help us to think that maybe the preference of bamboo has some relation with other bamboo physical characters, for example bamboo tenacity, bamboo smell and so on. Certainly we has also considered bamboo nutrient ingredient, so comes the experiment to test different bamboo's nutrient ingredient. But it is a pity we failed to find the relation. We also found that it has big difference with former report or paper record. Maybe different geographical position affect bamboo nutrient ingredient to a large extent.The quantity of captive Giant Panda in Qinling has enhanced these years, but effective protection goes a long way with which it can ensure wild Giant Panda's safety and bamboo resources as well. We anticipate having further study on the preference of edible bamboo species to captive Giant Panda.