The giant panda, also known as the panda bear or simply panda, is a bear species endemic to China. It is characterised by its black-and-white coat and rotund body. The name "giant panda" is sometimes used to distinguish it from the red panda, a neighboring musteloid. Adult individuals average 100 to 115 kg, and are typically 1.2 to 1.9 m long. The species is sexually dimorphic, as males are typically 10 to 20% larger. The fur is white, with black patches around the eyes, ears, legs and shoulders. A thumb is visible on the bear's forepaw, which helps in holding bamboo in place for feeding. Giant pandas have adapted larger molars and expanded temporal fossa to meet their dietary requirements.

Bamboos are a diverse group of mostly evergreen perennial flowering plants making up the subfamily Bambusoideae of the grass family Poaceae. Giant bamboos are the largest members of the grass family, in the case of Dendrocalamus sinicus individual culms reaching a length of 46 meters, up to 36 centimeters in thickness and a weight of up to 450 kilograms. The internodes of bamboos can also be of great length. Kinabaluchloa wrayi has internodes up to 2.5 meters in length. and Arthrostylidium schomburgkii with lower internodes up to 5 meters in length, exceeded in length only by papyrus. By contrast, the culms of the tiny bamboo Raddiella vanessiae of the savannas of French Guiana are only 10–20 millimeters in length by about two millimeters in width. The origin of the word "bamboo" is uncertain, but it probably comes from the Dutch or Portuguese language, which originally borrowed it from Malay or Kannada.