Giant panda
A giant panda at the Smithsonian National Zoological Park in Washington, D.C.
Conservation status
Vulnerable (IUCN 3.1)
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Mammalia
Order:	Carnivora
Family:	Ursidae
Genus:	Ailuropoda
Binomial name
Ailuropoda melanoleuca (David, 1869)
Giant panda range

The giant panda, Ailuropoda melanoleuca, is a bear. It lives in south central China.

Although it belongs to the order Carnivora, the panda's diet is almost 99% bamboo. Pandas in the wild occasionally eat other grasses, wild tubers, or even meat in the form of birds, rodents or carrion. In captivity, they may get honey, eggs, fish, yams, shrub leaves, oranges, or bananas along with specially prepared food.