Think of a giant panda and you’ll probably think of a big bear rolling around in a Chinese forest munching on bamboo all day.
But there’s actually a really good reason why giant pandas always seen to be chewing on bamboo: According to a new study, symbiotic bacteria in the giant panda’s gut is not very effective at breaking down the fibrous plant.
Published in the journal mBio, the new study examined the “carnivore-like” bacteria in the panda’s gut, particularly Escherichia/Shigella and Streptococcus.
“Unlike other plant-eating animals that have successfully evolved anatomically specialized digestive systems to efficiently deconstruct fibrous plant matter, the giant panda still retains a gastrointestinal tract typical of carnivores,” study author Zhihe Zhang, director of the Chengdu Research Base of Giant Panda Breeding in China, said in a press release. “The animals also do not have the genes for plant-digesting enzymes in their own genome. This combined scenario may have increased their risk for extinction.”
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