The giant panda of central China is a member of the family Ursidae, its closest relative being the spectacled bear of South America. It has the curious distinction of being part of the order Carnivora, but having an almost exclusively herbivorous diet.
The pandas of Sichuan province have the typical black and white coloration we are familiar with.
Pandas of the Qingling Mountains in Shaanxi province however, can have brown and white coloration.
I've been on the lookout for 1/72 pandas for a while now, so when I saw a panda figure in a package of Safari Ltd. "Good Luck Minis" today, I went ahead and bought the set.
The average length from snout to rump of an adult panda is about 5', but they can reach up to 6'. The figure is over an inch long, so it represents a very large panda.
If anyone is interested, here's a link to the Panda Cam at my local zoo (unfortunately, they don't give any indication of when the camera is turned on).
