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
Giant panda "giant panda" or "panda bear" for the bear, and simply "panda" for the Ailuridae, despite the popular usage of the word "panda". Since the earliest collection of Chinese writings, the Chinese language has given the bear 20 different names, such as "huāxióng" ( "spotted bear") and "zhúxióng" ( "bamboo bear"). The most popular names in China today is "dàxióngmāo" ( literally "giant bear cat"), or simply "xióngmāo" ( "bear cat"). The name "xióngmāo" ( "bear cat") was originally used to describe the red panda ("Ailurus fulgens"), but since giant panda was thought to be closely related to red panda, "dàxióngmāo"