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
Red panda "poonya" are also said to mean "eater of bamboo". The name panda could originate from "panjā". In modern Chinese, the red panda is called "xiăoxióngmāo" (/, lesser or small panda), or / ("hóngxióngmāo", red panda). In contrast, the giant panda is called "dàxióngmāo" (/, giant or big panda), or simply "xióngmāo" (/, panda, literally bear-cat). In English, the red panda is also called "lesser panda" (since it is smaller than the giant panda), though "red panda" is more commonly used nowadays. As it was known in the West decades before the giant panda, initially it was the red panda that