Think of pandas as the world’s most dedicated salad eaters. More than 99 percent of their diet is bamboo, and they chow down on about 26 to 84 pounds (12 to 38 kg) of it daily. That’s like eating hundreds of heads of lettuce every day.
They consume different bamboo species, and their favorites include arrow bamboo, black bamboo and water bamboo. Whether it’s bamboo shoots, bamboo leaves or stalks, pandas aren’t picky — so long as it’s bamboo.
Interestingly, despite their plant-based diet, their digestive system is still built like a carnivore’s, meaning they don’t fully digest bamboo efficiently.
They make up for it by eating a ton of it, spending up to 14 hours a day chowing down. Scientists have compared their eating habits to a conveyor belt: Food in, food out, repeat.
