Which bear species eats primarily bamboo?

The bear species that eats primarily bamboo is the giant panda.

Giant pandas are bears native to China, especially mountain forests in Sichuan, Gansu, and Shaanxi. About 99% of their wild diet is bamboo, including leaves, stems, and nutrient-rich shoots. They may occasionally eat meat, fish, eggs, or other foods, but bamboo dominates their daily feeding.

Bamboo is fibrous and relatively low in energy, so pandas must spend many hours eating and process large quantities. An adult can consume roughly 12–38 kilograms of bamboo in a day and may defecate dozens of times. Powerful jaw muscles, broad molars, and the panda's enlarged wrist bone—often called a “panda's thumb”—help it grip and crush the plant.

A common mix-up is assuming that a bamboo diet makes the giant panda a typical herbivore. Its digestive system and ancestry remain strongly associated with carnivorous bears, and its gut is not especially efficient at breaking down cellulose. The panda's shift toward bamboo occurred over evolutionary time, while its bear anatomy remained.