Giant panda to digest cellulose is ascribed to the microbes in its gut. Pandas are born with sterile intestines and require bacteria obtained from their mother's feces to digest vegetation. The giant panda is a "highly specialized" animal with "unique adaptations", and has lived in bamboo forests for millions of years. The average giant panda eats as much as 9 to 14 kg (20 to 30 lb) of bamboo shoots a day to compensate for the limited energy content of its diet. Ingestion of such a large quantity of material is possible because of the rapid passage of large amounts of indigestible
Ling Ling (giant panda) Japanese Foreign Ministry about obtaining a new panda from China. Ling Ling was the only giant panda in Japan which was directly owned by the government or a Japanese institution. There are still eight other pandas located throughout Japan. However, each of these remaining eight pandas are currently on loan from China and are not Japanese owned. Six of the Chinese pandas are currently housed at Adventure World, which is located in Shirahama, Wakayama Prefecture, while two other pandas resident at the Kobe Municipal Oji Zoo in Kobe, Japan. Japanese Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda asked Chinese President Hu Jintao for