Feeding the pandas at the San Diego Zoo

With the new arrival of the international giant pandas, their dinner plate is in the making with various species of bamboo here in San Diego.

Southern California has a wide spectrum of exotic bamboos that can grow and thrive in our soft Mediterranean climate.

There are 42 species of bamboo that the pandas eat in their native landscape, with some supplementary rodents, birds, and fish occasionally.

The remote tropical forest in central west China with its mountains ranging from 5,000 to 10,000 feet in elevation is where approximately 1,800 pandas live, roam, and thrive today.

A mature panda can...