Pandas are known for their black and white fur - and for their special diet of bamboo.
They don't like every species and not always the same ones, after all, a fully grown specimen eats up to 45 kilograms in one day.
And over the course of evolution, carnivore bears have adapted in amazing ways to their plant-based diet.
Sonya Kastilan
Editor in the "Science" department of the Frankfurter Allgemeine Sunday newspaper.
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Today, pandas are an endangered species in their native China, but they are pampered there in elaborate breeding programs and used on loan to international zoos for diplomatic purposes.
Their reproduction is complicated, nothing is left to chance when possible, and every birth is celebrated as a success.
There are said to be around two thousand giant pandas (Ailuropoda melanoleuca) left, or again: the number has increased slightly in the last two decades.
What's most interesting, however, is how the popular bears turned into vegetarians with a fairly unbalanced diet (99 percent bamboo-based).
Unlike their omnivorous kin, they don't hibernate, and their paws grew false thumbs.