The morphological characteristics of extinct relatives of the giant panda suggest that while the ancient giant panda was omnivorous 7 million years ago (mya), it only became herbivorous some 2–2.4 mya with the emergence of A. microta.[64][67] Genome sequencing of the giant panda suggests that the dietary switch could have initiated from the loss of the sole umami taste receptor, encoded by the genes TAS1R1 and TAS1R3 (also known as T1R1 and T1R3), resulting from two frameshift mutations within the T1R1 exons.[54]Umami taste corresponds to high levels of glutamate as found in meat and may have thus altered the food choice of the giant panda.[68]
Wikipedia says otherwise, despite them still having many carnivore/omnivore features. It’s also -very- unlikely there haven’t been suitable prey species in their range in the last 2.4 million years.
Their faces, bodies, behavior, and various aspects of their metabolism are adaptations for bamboo-eating. They were omnivores, but they are no longer.
Two of the panda's most distinctive features, its large size and round face, are adaptations to its bamboo diet. Anthropologist Russell Ciochon observed: "[much] like the vegetarian gorilla, the low body surface area to body volume [of the giant panda] is indicative of a lower metabolic rate. This lower metabolic rate and a more sedentary lifestyle allows the giant panda to subsist on nutrient poor resources such as bamboo."[62] The giant panda's round face is the result of powerful jaw muscles, which attach from the top of the head to the jaw.[62] Large molars crush and grind fibrous plant material.[64]
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Giant_panda
I like how everyone replying to me is giving pandas all these special asterisks to their classification that don’t actually exist or matter, when it’s literally just an exception to the predator rule, and has been for over 2 million years.
Unless my math is wrong, which is super possible cuz I’m not particularly skilled with math, this isn’t possible. I just looked up seconds in a day and did a couple quick divisions (86,400 seconds in a day, divide by 30 for the number of swims, then divide by 365 for number of years it would take). So might be way off.
A single day in that arrangement appears to take almost 8 (7.89) years of daily 30-second swims. You’d never reach 5 years, it would just be a permanent condition of your life at that point. You might accumulate an entire fortnite before you die if you start very young (14 days would be 110.5 yrs).
Edit to fix number