The panda, or giant panda, is a mammal belonging to the Ursidae family, however, its primary diet is herbivorous. It is native to the southern central China and the wild population consists of no more than a few thousands of animals. Therefore, the panda is known as a conservation-reliant endangered species. The animal is highly specialized to live in forests and feed on bamboo. Panda puppies, immediately after birth, weigh no more than a mouse. The animals can communicate with each other vocally: at least 11 different sounds have been identified. The evolutionary origin of the panda lineage is very poorly understood, and therefore it is still a matter of controversy today.

The panda genome has 20 pairs of autosomes and one pair of sex chromosomes containing 2.3 Gb with 21,000 protein-coding genes. The reference proteome is derived from the genome sequence published in 2010.