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
Tian Tian (female giant panda) Zoo said was hard to predict and the panda breeding season can last until late September. On 11 September 2017, the Zoo said that Tian Tian was not pregnant and her hormone levels had returned to normal. The coverage of Tian Tian's pregnancies at Edinburgh Zoo became so widespread that BBC Radio 4 current affairs programme PM broadcast satirical daily "Possible Panda Pregnancy Update[s]". Tian Tian (female giant panda) Tian Tian (, meaning "Sweetie") is a female panda born on 24 August 2003 at the Beijing Zoo from mother Niu Niu and father Ying Ying, and currently resident at Edinburgh