My favourite animal is panda. The panda looks like a big, sweet teddy bear. It has black and white body and white head with black ears and black patches around its eyes. Pandas eat mainly bamboo leaves. They sometimes also eat fish, insects, honey and eggs. They live in the mountains of southern and central China.
Pandas breed very slowly, both in their natural environment and in the captivity, so when a panda is born in a zoo, it is one of the most important news of the day.
Pandas are in danger of extinction. Because of pollution and destruction of their natural environment, the number of pandas is now very small. In 2004 there were only about 1600 pandas living in the wild and about 100 living in zoos.
According to Chinese law, until 1997 killing a panda was punished by death.
