Giant pandas cannot properly digest bamboo, scientists find

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Giant pandas cannot properly digest bamboo, scientists find - Telegraph

Giant pandas cannot properly digest bamboo, scientists find

Giant pandas are forced to eat so much bamboo because they lack the enzymes to properly digest the plant

By Sarah Knapton

4:41PM BST 19 May 2015

The mystery of why giant pandas are forced to spend 14 hours a day eating foods has finally been solved - they can only digest around 17 per cent of the bamboo they swallow.

Researchers found their gut bacteria are not the type for efficiently breaking down bamboo. In fact they are built to eat meat.

The giant panda actually harbours a carnivore-like gut, according to the research published in the journal mBio.

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