The village is located in the northernmost part of the Arkhangelsk region and is regularly raided by wild animals. Often these are polar bears who occupy landfills and even enter houses.

"Belushya Lipa" is called the village.

It is a small military town with 2,500 inhabitants. Located on Novaya Zemlya (about 1800 km from Moscow), near the habitat of polar bears.

The problem is that these aggressive predators are listed in the Red Book and you cannot get rid of them by force. According to the Wildlife Fund, their population on the planet now numbers only 22,000 - 31,000 individuals.

They are not afraid of anything. They calmly enter buildings and look into the windows, - say local residents.

On footage from the Internet, you can observe how groups of 20-30 animals swarm around in garbage dumps near residential buildings. Unfortunately, such a neighborhood is fraught with human health.

All of this is due to climate change. The ice melts and forces animals to move around the area in search of food. People and predators are increasingly meeting each other.

Local leaders regularly declare a state of emergency and advise people to stay at home if predators approach the village.

It's hard to find a better alarm clock than a few bears having a party in your backyard. This is exactly what happened to North Carolina resident Sumer Walzer Williams, who unexpectedly had to host a pair of clubfoot intruders in her backyard. But the funniest thing about all this was the curious little bear cub, or rather the reaction of his mother, who, apparently, was already tired of his antics.

There is hardly a person who the sight of these black and white teddy bears would not touch. Why bears? Because, in fact, they are bears. At least, that's what scientists say.

The good news is that pandas are no longer on the brink of extinction

But most don't know anything about pandas other than that they have black spots around their eyes and that they eat bamboo. However, these cute animals deserve to get to know them better.

We at Bemorepanda love to talk about different representatives of the animal world. And today the heroes of our selection will be pandas. If you are wondering what they are, then check out the facts below to learn all about their habits and lifestyle. 

1. There Are Two Subspecies Of Giant Pandas

Giant pandas can be seen in Qinling and Sichuan. Only 18.5% of giant pandas live in the Qinling area. The appearance, coloration, and body shape of giant pandas vary between Sichuan and the Qinling Mountains due to differences in soil, temperature, and vegetation in each region.

The Sichuan giant panda has a bear-like head, while the giant Qinling panda has a smaller skull and wider fangs, giving it a more cat-like appearance.

The two pandas have the same origin, but they are separated from each other by a vast river, mountains, and human activity. According to paleontologists, they lost contact 50,000 years ago, after which they began to evolve and reproduce on their own.

2. Pandas are loners

The giant panda lives alone. They have their own territory in the wild and protect it from other pandas. This is because giant pandas eat bamboo and have no need for coordinated hunting. To meet their nutritional needs, they must consume a lot of bamboo.

Conflict over access to enough bamboo would prevent giant pandas from peacefully coexisting in groups, which would be detrimental to their overall survival.

A panda usually needs its own bamboo forest of 3-8 square kilometers in order to exist.

3. Pandas need at least 2 different types of bamboo in their range to avoid starvation.

Pandas are some of the most adorable vegetarians in the world. Their digestive system has evolved in principle to process meat, but they do not eat anything but bamboo, and every day. A new study shows how these animals survive on a plant-based diet that, logically, should be harmful. But how do they do it? The thing is that they feed on several types of bamboo that grow in different places.

It turns out that pandas migrate to eat different kinds of bamboo, getting different nutrients. For example, in spring they feed on young bamboo shoots rich in nitrogen and phosphorus. In June, the bamboo shoots mature and become depleted of nutrients, so the pandas migrate to a different height in the highlands and start eating the young shoots there. However, the shoots of both species are low in calcium, prompting the bears to make their next dietary change in mid-July: migrating to an area where calcium-rich bamboo grows.

4. Giant Pandas Are No Longer Endangered

Their number has increased to around 2,200 as a result of giant panda conservation initiatives. There are currently 1,864 giant pandas living in the wild, 422 of them were born in captivity. This changed their status from "Endangered" to "Vulnerable".

5. Giant Pandas Spend 14 Hours A Day Eating A Diet Of Bamboo

Pandas, members of the bear family, usually lead a solitary lifestyle. They are excellent tree climbers but spend most of their time eating. They can feed for 14 hours a day, eating mainly bamboo, which makes up 99% of their daily diet.

6. Adult pandas average about 150 cm long and 75 cm high

An adult has a height of 60-90 cm (shoulders), and the length is 1.2-1.9 m.

An adult panda can weigh up to 150 kg, while males are 10% larger and 20% heavier than females.

7. Pandas can swim and even climb trees

Giant pandas are excellent tree climbers and swimmers. Giant panda cubs begin climbing at about 5 months old, often climbing on top of their mother.

8. In addition to bamboo, pandas also eat eggs and rodents.

The panda's diet is 99% vegetarian and consists mainly of bamboo roots, stems, shoots and leaves. However, because they have a carnivorous digestive system, the remaining 1% of their diet may include eggs, small animals, and carrion. Farmed pandas have also been observed feeding on squash, beans, wheat, and domestic pig food.

9. Unlike other bears, pandas don't hibernate.

Because of their bamboo diet, giant pandas cannot accumulate enough fat to hibernate in the winter.

However, pandas are not afraid of the cold. They can be seen walking through the bamboo forests, which are covered with abundant snow, even at temperatures as low as -4°C.

10. A panda year is roughly equal to three human years.

In terms of lifespan, a panda year is comparable to about three human years. Giant pandas can live up to 25 to 30 years in captivity and 18 to 20 years in the wild. A giant panda aged 38 years and four months, known as Xinxing (or "New Star"), lived in the Chongqing Zoo (1982-2020). This is the same as 115 years in human years.

11. Babies are well protected in the first month

Pandas are born without the characteristic black and white markings, but they quickly appear in color. Here is a photo of a six-week-old bear cub, which already has a recognizable appearance:

The giant panda's distinctive black and white markings serve two purposes: camouflage and communication.

12. Pandas have great camouflage for their habitat.

The panda's muzzle, neck, belly and rump are white, which helps it to hide in snowy environments. And thanks to the black fur, they can blend in with tree trunks and dark hues.

13. Pandas sometimes do a handstand when they pee.

Pandas can often climb a tree backwards on their hind legs until they are in a full handstand upside down, allowing them to mark territory as high as possible, leaving their scent behind.

14. Pandas do not have round pupils, but slits, like cats.

One feature of panda bears is that they have a vertical pupillary slit like cats, rather than round pupils like other bears. This allows them to see well at night, which is handy as they are constantly looking for food, even at night.

15. Giant pandas can defecate 40 times a day.

The food of other animals remains in the stomach for more than a day, while bamboo in the intestines of giant pandas lingers only for 8-12 hours, and the shortest bamboo shoots. In panda habitats, you can watch pandas eat and poop at the same time.

16. Pandas have 6 "fingers"

The panda's sixth "finger" resembles a human thumb. It is actually a unique carpal bone or opposing paw heel pad with powerful muscles but no movable joints that serves the same purpose as the thumb and can retain food.

17. Pandas live in dense bamboo forests high in the mountains of Central China.

Once upon a time, the giant panda was widespread in the south and east of China, as well as in neighboring Myanmar and northern Vietnam. But due to population growth and the development of human settlements, this kind of teddy bear is currently living in about 20 isolated areas of the bamboo forest of six mountain ranges in the Chinese provinces of Sichuan, Shaanxi and Gansu.

18. Pandas use scent to mark their territory.

Giant pandas use a variety of methods to mark their territory, including rubbing their olfactory glands against tree bark and urinating on it. A typical rule among pandas is that they get stronger the higher they can place their scent marks on the tree.

19. Panda cubs are born pink and measure about 15 cm.

20. Female pandas give birth to one or two cubs every two years.

Giant panda cubs can spend up to three years with their moms before heading out on their own.

21. Pandas will abandon one of their cubs if they have twins.

While pandas in captivity are more likely to have twins, wild pandas often have only one cub. If a mother panda gives birth to two cubs in the wild, she will only feed the one she deems stronger. The other will be left to itself.

At about 12 months of age, the cubs start eating bamboo, but until that point they are completely dependent on their mother. Therefore, in the wild, panda mothers lack the milk and energy needed to care for two babies.

22. Spring is mating season for pandas

Females have a complex reproductive cycle. The breeding season for giant pandas is usually in the spring from March to May. But, despite the long “mating season”, one female has a estrus period of only 24-72 hours, and once a year. The average pregnancy lasts five months.

While male giant pandas leave scent marks as a sign to attract females, female giant pandas will make distinctive sounds during their reproductive season in the wild.

23. Giant pandas and red pandas are not closely related.

Despite the similar name, giant pandas belong to the Bear family, while red pandas are the only surviving members of their taxonomic family Panda (from the order Caniformia).

24. Giant pandas can experience false pregnancy.

The pseudo-pregnancy, which mimics a real pregnancy, does not end in childbirth, instead the giant panda's hormones and behavior return to normal. Mei Xiang of the Smithsonian National Zoo is estimated to have had at least six false pregnancies.

25. Most of the world's giant panda cubs go to China before they are 4 years old.

Most of the giant pandas in the world are on loan from China, and cubs born outside of China must be transferred back under the Chinese breeding program in order to increase the gene pool.

26. The biggest threat to wild giant pandas is habitat loss.

Poaching and habitat destruction over the past 3,000 years has brought the total number of funny bears down to below 2,000. Today, giant pandas live in an area that is less than 1% of their historical range.

27. The first giant pandas at the Smithsonian National Zoo were Ling-Ling and Sin-Hsing.

After First Lady Patricia Nixon expressed her admiration for them at a banquet in Beijing, China in 1972, Chinese Premier Zhou Enlai sent them as a gift to the American people.

28. The bite of a giant panda is incredibly strong.

Its bite ranked third among the living species studied, with a bite force coefficient of 151. The giant panda is one of the few carnivores that primarily feed on vegetation, particularly bamboo, a tough, fibrous plant that requires vigorous chewing. The strength of a panda's bite has nothing to do with the size of its food.

29. Much of what pandas eat ends up as waste.

The giant panda's digestive tract is more like that of a carnivore than a herbivore, and much of the food it consumes comes out naturally as waste.

30. Mei Xiang, Tian Tian and their cub will remain at the Smithsonian National Zoo until 2023

An adult pair of pandas, Mei Xiang and Tian Tian, arrived at the zoo in 2000. The contract with the China Wildlife Conservation Association stipulates that the couple and their cub will remain at the zoo until the end of 2023.

31. The Chinese distribute pandas around the world as part of a panda diplomacy program, a practice dating back to the Tang Dynasty in the 7th century, when Empress Wu Zetian sent a pair of pandas to the Japanese emperor.

Today, China typically offers two healthy and fertile pandas to other countries for 10 to 15 year leases. For this, countries must pay $1 million every year. When signing the contract, the host party undertakes to send to China all cubs aged 2 years, which will be born to a rented pair of bamboo bears. Moreover, in this case, each bear cub will have to pay an additional 600 thousand dollars annually.

32. In Chinese zoos, there is a position of "hug" pandas

His duties include not only looking after the bears, but also stroking them and hugging them to relieve stress.