Abstract
Knowledge of energy expenditure informs conservation managers for long term plans for endangered species health and habitat suitability. We measured field metabolic rate (FMR) of free-roaming giant pandas in large enclosures in a nature reserve using the doubly labeled water method. Giant pandas in zoo like enclosures had a similar FMR (14,182 kJ/day) to giant pandas in larger field enclosures (13,280 kJ/day). In winter, giant pandas raised their metabolic rates when living at − 2.4 °C (36,108 kJ/day) indicating that they were below their thermal neutral zone. The lower critical temperature for thermoregulation was about 8.0 °C and the upper critical temperature was about 28 °C. Giant panda FMRs were somewhat lower than active metabolic rates of sloth bears, lower than FMRs of grizzly bears and polar bears and 69 and 81% of predicted values based on a regression of FMR versus body mass of mammals. That is probably due to their lower levels of activity since other bears actively forage for food over a larger home range and pandas often sit in a patch of bamboo and eat bamboo for hours at a time. The low metabolic rates of giant pandas in summer, their inability to acquire fat stores to hibernate in winter, and their ability to raise their metabolic rate to thermoregulate in winter are energetic adaptations related to eating a diet composed almost exclusively of bamboo. Differences in FMR of giant pandas between our study and previous studies (one similar and one lower) appear to be due to differences in activity of the giant pandas in those studies.
Highlights
Knowledge of energy expenditure informs conservation managers for long term plans for endangered species health and habitat suitability
The highest field metabolic rate (FMR) was from a release panda in winter (44,170 kJ/day) at the Daxiangling Nature Reserve
Mass appeared to affect the FMR of giant pandas (Fig. 2a) but the regression of FMR on mass was not statistically significant due to the small sample size and the confounding effect of ambient temperature
Summary
Knowledge of energy expenditure informs conservation managers for long term plans for endangered species health and habitat suitability. Most bears, including giant pandas, are animals of the forest but before the arrival of Europeans, grizzly bears inhabited the Great Plains of North America and polar bears are animals of the Arctic. In addition to the studies on giant pandas, field metabolic rates (FMR) have been measured for polar bears[12,13] and active metabolic rates have been reported for sloth b ears[11] and grizzly b ears[12]. By comparing the metabolic rates of giant pandas in a natural environment with those measured in other bears we can assess whether giant pandas have a lower metabolic rate than expected based on allometric predictions
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