Why are Pandas so Chilled? The Clue is in the Bamboo

Plants and Animals





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Nah I’m staying here, have already walked 20 metres today. Fuwen Wei, Author provided

It has long been a mystery how giant pandas, which have a gut ideal for digesting meat, can survive eating almost exclusively bamboo. Now our research has found that they can cope with this low-quality diet because they have an extremely slow metabolic rate. This may also explain why they are so inactive and have comparatively small organs for their body size.

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