Low Metabolism Lets Pandas Survive on Bamboo

Giant pandas eat vegetables even though their bodies are better equipped to eat meat. So how do these black-and-white bears from the remote, misty mountains of central China survive on a diet almost exclusively of a low-nutrient food like bamboo? Scientists on Thursday provided an answer. They found that the giant panda is downright miserly in the amount of energy it expends on a daily basis - a level similar to that of the famously sluggish three-toed sloth - thanks to low levels of...

© La Voix de l'Amérique - vendredi 10 juillet 2015