Why don’t pandas hibernate?

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Considering that the panda is a true bear living in the high elevations (4,000 to 11,000 ft) of the Tibetan Plateau in China, most people would think that they would spend the winter months tucked safely away in a cave or hollowed out tree but they do not. The pandas forage for food 365 days a year. To maintain their body weight, the pandas must consume huge quantities of food everyday. And it is the panda’s choice of food that is the main reason that they do not hibernate. The wild giant panda’s diet is 99% bamboo, a type of grass that has no fat content, therefore making it impossible for the panda to store fat.  
 
With adult female pandas weighing between 140 and 180 pounds and the males weighing up to 300 pounds, the wild pandas must eat an average of 14 hours a day and consume an average of 28 pounds of bamboo everyday! Pandas will also eat flowers, eggs, fish, birds and small animals if they are presented (carrion) but the panda is not a predatory animal.
 

When a female giant panda gives birth, she will not leave her newborn cub for up to one month. During the summer months leading up to the birth, the female panda will start to consume less food and her metabolism slows. Following the birth, the mother panda becomes very inactive and uses all her energy in milk production. This new lower metabolic rate is what enables the new mother to refrain from consuming any food or water and is the closest a panda gets to hibernating.

Giant Pandas 101!
 
Other facts about the giant pandas that make them totally amazing:
 
The giant panda has an elongated wrist bone (radial seismoid) that acts as an opposing thumb.
 
Pandas have poor eyesight and communicate mainly through scent markings but do have 11 distinctive vocalizations from bleating to a roar.
 
The newborn panda is born pink, blind, helpless and weighing just 4 to 8 ounces!
 
There are 1,200 different types of bamboo but the pandas will only eat 6 to 9 varieties.
 
Pandas are solitary animals but in the wild, mother and cub will stay together for up to two years.
 
They are an endangered species with only an estimated 1600 left in the wild!