Where does San Diego Zoo get bamboo for its giant pandas?

SAN DIEGO (FOX 5/KUSI) — Giant pandas can eat up to 84 pounds of bamboo a day. In fact, it makes up about 99% of their diet.

According to wildlife experts, the black and white bears spend 10 to 14 hours a day munching on culms, or stems, as well as bamboo shoots and leaves.

So where does San Diego Zoo get all the bamboo for Yun Chuan and Xin Bao, the two giant pandas that made their public debut Thursday?

There’s actually a lot of thought and consideration behind sourcing their food, especially since there are over 1,000 different species of bamboo worldwide.

Officials with the San Diego Zoo Wildlife Alliance said nutrition specialists “take a comprehensive approach,” building upon knowledge from a wide range of sources.

“Our long history of caring for giant pandas is incredibly valuable for informing the varieties of bamboo to offer, how the growth of those bamboo varies seasonally, and any bamboo species or seasonal preferences that might have been observed in pandas,” said Dr. Andrea Fidgett, director of wildlife nutrition for the Wildlife Alliance.

The zoo offers a wide range of natural choices for the giant pandas, offering a mix of shoots, culms with young leaf growth and more mature culms. But where is it cultivated?

According to the Wildlife Alliance, the bamboo is homegrown at both the Balboa Park zoo grounds and at the San Diego Zoo Safari Park.

Nearly a dozen species of bamboo are grown across six acres of dedicated land, with several hundreds of pounds of pesticide-free bamboo made available to the zoo’s giant pandas every day.

Due to the various “microclimates” throughout the zoo campuses, a wide variety of bamboo is able to be grown and harvested.

“Though there are distinct growing seasons for shoots, we’re fortunate that our climate extends these periods,” Dr. Fidgett continued. “And by having a large variety and volume of bamboo growing, we can offer nutritious bamboo year-round.”

More information on how the bamboo is harvested can be found here.

The giant pandas can now be seen in-person at the San Diego Zoo, which is open daily from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. Tickets can be purchased online or at the front gate..

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