Other Asian species which depend on bamboo for food or for shelter include the red panda and the world's second smallest bat, the lesser bamboo bat (Tylonycteris pachypus), which is 3.5 cm (1.4 inches) long.

BBC: NEWS | Science/Nature | UN alert on threat to wild bamboo

In today's world, the giant panda and the mole are anomalies among vertebrates: both have a second thumb, giving them a total of 12 digits.

BBC: Mystery of mole's second thumb solved

The World Wide Fund for Nature ( www.panda.org) has extensive resources on all species under threat in every part of the world.

CNN: ASIANOW - TIME Asia | Travel Watch

The giant panda is one of the most endangered species in the world.

CNN: Panda cub dies at Smithsonian's National Zoo

The SEO world is in a frenzy because Google has rolled out algorithm updates, titled Penguin and Panda, which penalize websites that have been overly-optimized to game the older algorithm.

FORBES: Connect

True, many in Beijing, especially those whose counterparts in the capitalist world are called yuppies, affect a boredom for the games (Pan-Pan, the games' panda mascot, is irritatingly ubiquitous).

ECONOMIST: From the archive