How giant pandas survive on a diet of hard-to-digest bamboo has been questined by many researchers. It turns out, the bears carry around their own digestive helpers in their bellies, a new study suggests. Though the pandas, which can grow to 350 pounds, are closely related to meat eaters, the vast majority of their diet is plants, in the form of bamboo. The study showed that cellulose-degrading bacteria live in the gut of the panda, Wei the leader of the study said. "It is highly possible that it is this kind of bacterium [that] plays an essential role in the degradation of cellulose of the giant panda." The Pandas stomach evolutionised so it could be able to eat what other mammals cant. For example us humans cannot eat bark of a tree because we do not contain those cellulose eating bacteria in our stomachs.
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