How Pandas Can Adapt to The Environment

Pandas can adapt to their environment, because their fur helps to keep them warm in cold conditions. Another is that they have short tails to help them balance on bamboo trees. Bamboo’s are pandas favourite food, without it they can’t survive. They need to have bamboo in their daily routine. About 99% of panda take bamboos as their daily food diet. Pandas has even developed large jaw muscles so that they could bite bamboo. Pandas even developed a sixth toe to help them grasp bamboos better. Their stomach which can already can take bamboo is no surprise that it’s very strong. Their stomach has a tougher lining, as well as stronger muscles, to aid with the digestion of large bamboo.

Bamboo's high cellulose content forces the bamboo through the giant panda's digestive system fairly quickly; the shortened intestines the giant pandas developed allows for this passage to be swift. The colon has also changed to accommodate the giant panda's exclusive bamboo diet. Since giant pandas do not usually drink water more than once a day, they do not pass waste as often as other creatures. The larger colon allows the giant panda to consume its enormous bamboo diet by helping the giant panda control its waste for longer periods of time, thus limiting the amount of times a giant panda must times a giant panda must stop for restroom breaks. Since giant pandas spend a great deal of their lives foraging for bamboo, their legs have strengthened over time to handle the bear's weight.

A giant panda can consume anywhere from 20 to 40 pounds of bamboo in a single day. Giant pandas average at a weight of about 250 pounds for males and up to 220 pounds for females due to all of this bamboo consumption. The giant panda's legs must be able to carry this weight over Buffalo grass Buffalo grass is a very hardy grass and grows mostly in the North American prairies. The North American prairies lie in the middle of the continent and have a dry climate during the summer, and a very cold and windy climate in the winter.

Buffalo grass is a warm-season, native, perennial shortgrass. It grows between 2 and 5 inches (5-13 cm) tall and spreads out between six feet and 12 feet (3-4 m). It has a round hollow stem with gray, green curly leaves. The leaves are 1/10 " wide and 2" long. In winter it turns tan and in the autumn it turns lavender. It is very drought resistant. In dry seasons it gets brown, and stops growing, and goes dormant. It is also heat and cold resistant. Buffalo grass has both male and female plants. The flower stalks are 4 to 8 inches (10-20 cm) tall The female seed head of buffalo grass grow in clusters of three to five hairy spikelets. The tiny clusters of yellow to golden male flower of buffalo grass grow about 2 inches (6 cm) above the blades. The burs on buffalo grass seeds don't cling to animal fur for very long and the seeds fall close to the parent plant. Buffalo grass sends out many thin roots that can reach 5 feet below the ground, forming a dense sod. Seventy percent of the roots are in the first 6 inches (15 cm) of soil. Buffalo grass also reproduces through stolons.

Buffalo grass is one of the most important grasses on the short grass prairies. Both livestock and white-tailed deer, buffalo, pronghorns, jackrabbits and prairie dogs use it as forage. It was the main source of food for the buffalo when huge herds roamed the prairies. Mountain plovers build their nests in buffalo grass.Fires set by lightning strikes often swept across the prairies, and became an important part of the ecosystem. Native Americans used to set fire to various parts of the prairie. Grassland fires move quickly and don't stay in one place for very long. Buffalo grass has adapted to grassland fires and sometimes grows better after a fire. T

he actual growing parts of buffalo grass are protected from fire by soil. It sends out new shoots from the roots or bottom of the unburned stolon buds. Seeds are also protected from fire by the burs they are enclosed in. Besides being found on the prairie, buffalo grass is used in meadows, and for turf grass. It's ornamental flowers can look pretty no matter where it grows.