A team of researchers explained how Giant Pandas are able to maintain their lifestyle while eating nothing but the particularly light bamboo.
According to BBC News, authors of a study published in the journal Science determined the animal puts out an astonishingly little amount of energy. They also determined their laziness comes from poor thyroid hormone development.
"We thought the metabolism of the panda would be low because the bamboo diet contains low energy," study senior author Fuwen Wei, a professor of zoology at the Chinese Academy of Sciences in Beijing, told Live Science. "But it is very surprising that it is this exceptionally low, equal to the three-toed sloth, and much lower than the koala."
For their study, the researchers observed five Giant Pandas living in captivity and three in their natural habitat. The panda's diet has long confused scientists, since bamboo is notably hard to digest and does not provide much energy anyway.
"Pandas save a lot of energy by being frugal with the energy they spend on physical activity," study lead author John Speakman, a professor at the University of Aberdeen and Chinese Academy of Sciences, told BBC News. "However, it is not only their low activity that contributes to their low metabolism; the metabolic rate of an active panda is still lower than a completely stationary human.
"We found that their low metabolism is correlated with very low levels of thyroid hormones, which was linked to a genetic mutation in the thyroid hormone synthesis pathway that is unique to the panda."
