Wildlife Archives

The Giant Panda is a mammal classified in the bear family, native to central-western and southwestern China.

It is easily recognized by its large, distinctive black patches around the eyes, over the ears, and across its round body.

Though belonging to the order Carnivora, the Giant Panda has a diet which is 99% bamboo. It may eat other foods such as honey, eggs, fish, yams, shrub leaves, oranges, and bananas when available.

The Giant Panda lives in a few mountain ranges in central China, in Sichuan, Shaanxi, and Gansu provinces. It once lived in lowland areas, but farming, forest clearing, and other development now restrict the Giant Panda to the mountains.

The Giant Panda is an endangered species and highly threatened. According to the latest report, China has 239 Giant Pandas in captivity and another 27 living outside the country. It also estimated that around 1 590 pandas are currently living in the wild.

Giant Panda distribution map :

Source : Wikipedia

Mount Etna is an active stratovolcano on the east coast of Sicily, south of Italy. It is the largest active volcano in Europe, currently standing 3 329 m high, though it should be noted that this varies with summit eruptions; the mountain is 21 m lower now than it was in 1981. Etna covers an area of 1 190 km² with a basal circumference of 140 km. This makes it by far the largest of the three active volcanoes in Italy, being about two and a half times the height of the next largest, Mount Vesuvius, wich is near Naples.

Very large image :

Very large image :

Map of Mount Etna :

Source : Wikipedia