AnAge entry for Ailuropoda melanoleuca
Classification (HAGRID: 02247)
- Taxonomy
-
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Mammalia (Taxon entry)
Order: Carnivora
Family: Ursidae
Genus: Ailuropoda
- Species
- Ailuropoda melanoleuca
- Common name
- Giant panda
- Synonyms
- Ursus melanoleucus
Lifespan, ageing, and relevant traits
- Maximum longevity
- 36.8 years (captivity)
- Source
- ref. 671
- Sample size
- Small
- Data quality
- Acceptable
- Observations
Because there can be a delay in implantation of 45-120 days, pregnancy can last up to 97-163 days [0434]. One wild born specimen was about 36.8 years of age when it died in captivity [0671]. A female panda called "Jia Jia" reportedly died at age 38 in 2016 at Ocean Park in Hong Kong, but this has not been confirmed.
Studies have suggested that these animals preserve their innate immunity, as a way to tackle the decline of their adaptive immunity with age [1377].
Life history traits (averages)
- Female sexual maturity
- 2,192 days
- Male sexual maturity
- 2,192 days
- Gestation
- 48 days
- Weaning
- Litter size
- 1.5 (viviparous)
- Litters per year
- 0.7
- Inter-litter interval
- 548 days
- Weight at birth
- 110 g
- Weight at weaning
- Adult weight
- 117,500 g
- Postnatal growth rate
- 0.0028 days-1 (from Gompertz function)
- Maximum longevity residual
- 126%
Metabolism
No information on metabolism is available.
References
- [1377] Du et al. (2019), Transcriptome analysis reveals immune-related gene expression changes with age in giant panda (Ailuropoda melanoleuca) blood (PubMed)
- [1142] Kohler et al. (2006), Comparative mortality levels among selected species of captive animals
- [0671] Richard Weigl (2005), Longevity of Mammals in Captivity; from the Living Collections of the World
- [0610] Ernest (2003), Life history characteristics of placental non-volant mammals
- [0077] Nakayama et al. (2001), Fractal analysis of senile plaque observed in various animal species (PubMed)
- [0434] Ronald Nowak (1999), Walker's Mammals of the World
- [0676] Purvis and Harvey (1995), Mammal life-history evolution: a comparative test of Charnov's model
- [0455] Virginia Hayssen et al. (1993), Asdell's Patterns of Mammalian Reproduction: A Compendium of Species-Specific Data
- [0680] Wootton (1987), The effects of body mass, phylogeny, habitat, and trophic level on mammalian age at first reproduction
- [0731] Zullinger et al. (1984), Fitting sigmoid equations to mammalian growth curves
External Resources
- Integrated Taxonomic Information System
- ITIS 621845
- Animal Diversity Web
- ADW account
- Encyclopaedia of Life
- Search EOL
- NCBI Taxonomy
- Taxonomy ID 9646
- Entrez
- Search all databases
- Ageing Literature
- Search Google Scholar or Search PubMed
- Images
- Google Image search
- Internet
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