Toronto Zoo: Giant Panda Cub Fall Compilation

There sure are a lot of falling pandas at the Toronto Zoo. Probably they don't get too hurt by the falls. The joke is that this will make you fall for pandas all over again. It would be interesting to see a study about how often pandas fall.

Pandas are great at climbing trees. Pandas also fall out of trees often. A Zoo would agree that pandas are adept climbers. They climb and subsequently fall as a form of play. Pandas often climb again and again to fall again and again. It is like they only climb to fall back down again. It is like they are repeating it for eternity.

In Greek mythology Sisyphus or Sisyphos was the king of Ephyra (now known as Corinth). He was punished for his self-aggrandizing craftiness and deceitfulness by being forced to roll an immense boulder up a hill only for it to roll down every time it neared the top. He repeated this action for eternity. Tasks that are both laborious and futile are therefore described as Sisyphean.

The giant panda (Ailuropoda melanoleuca; Chinese: 大熊猫 ) is also known as the panda bear or simply the panda. It is really a bear native to south central China. It has large, black patches around its eyes, over the ears, and across its round body. The name "giant panda" is sometimes used to distinguish it from the red panda, a neighboring musteloid.

Though technically it belongs to the order Carnivora, the giant panda is a folivore. Bamboo shoots and leaves make up more than 99% of its diet.

Giant pandas in the wild have been known to eat other grasses, wild tubers, or even meat in the form of birds, rodents, or carrion. In captivity, they may receive honey, eggs, fish, yams, shrub leaves, oranges or bananas. They may receive specially prepared food.

For many decades, it seems that the precise taxonomic classification of the giant panda was under debate because it shares characteristics with both bears and raccoons.

It appears that molecular studies indicate the giant panda is a true bear, part of the family Ursidae. These studies show it diverged about 19 million years ago from the common ancestor of the Ursidae. It is actually the most basal member of this family and equidistant from all other extant bear species. The giant panda has been often referred to as a living fossil.