Being a vegetarian is no easy task: The difficulty of maintaining a balanced diet is enough to drive an herbivore back to the land of hamburgers and chicken wings. And human vegetarians aren’t the only ones who have to get creative with their diet — giant pandas do the same.
Until now, scientists have been uncertain how pandas fulfill their dietary needs through the consumption of only one, highly fibrous plant – bamboo. The new study answers this question: Pandas consume a mix of two bamboo species, as well as several parts of the plant, in order to meet their dietary needs.
