Article
ANIMAL PHYSIOLOGY. Exceptionally low daily energy expenditure in the bamboo-eating giant panda.
Science (New York, N.Y.) - 10 Jul 2015
Nie Yonggang, Speakman John R, Wu Qi, Zhang Chenglin, Hu Yibo, Xia Maohua, Yan Li, Hambly Catherine, Wang Lu, Wei Wei, Zhang Jinguo, Wei Fuwen
Abstract excerpt
The carnivoran giant panda has a specialized bamboo diet, to which its alimentary tract is poorly adapted. Measurements of daily energy expenditure across five captive and three wild pandas averaged 5.2 megajoules (MJ)/day, only 37.7% of the predicted value (13.8 MJ/day). For the wild pandas, the mean was 6.2 MJ/day, or 45% of the mammalian expectation. Pandas achieve this exceptionally low expenditure in part by...
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