While visiting Chengdu in the Sichuan province of western China, I stayed one whole afternoon observing the pandas at the Chengdu Research Base of Giant Panda Breeding, the largest of the world. Without protection by the government, this breed would rapidly becomes extinct; the female ovulates only for 2 weeks once every two years. They freely roam within a 50 hectares forest being fed twice a day with bamboo leaves, their favorites. Although they seem so cuddly and huggable, they prefer and protect their space when they're not sleeping. The panda puts the branch between its teeth then slides it, thus obtaining a mouthful of leaves. About the size of an Canadian black bear, giant pandas stand between 60 to 90 cm tall at the shoulder (on all four legs), and reach 130 to 200 cm long. Males are larger than females, weighing up to 120 kg in the wild. Females rarely reach 100 kg. There are only about 900 left in the world.