Camp Panda: "Prologue"–"Pandas in Peril"

by Catherine Thimmesh
This nonfiction work explains the efforts taken by China and the United States to successfully preserve the giant panda from extinction.

This list covers vocabulary from the "Prologue"–"Pandas in Peril."

Here are links to our lists for the book: List 1, List 2, List 3, List 4, List 5, List 6
15 words 1679 learners

Learn words with Flashcards and other activities

Definition First
Print Flashcards

Other learning activities

Answer a few questions about each word. Use this to prep for your next quiz! Compete with other teams in real time to see who answers the most questions correctly! Test your spelling acumen. Read the definition, listen to the word and try spelling it!

Teaching tools

Create and assign quizzes to your students to test their vocabulary. Assign learning activities including Practice, Vocabulary Jams and Spelling Bees to your students, and monitor their progress in real-time.

Full list of words from this list:

words only definitions & notes
  1. lumber
    move heavily or clumsily
    Lumbering down the grassy mountainside in southwestern China—being careful not to slip—is a giant panda teddy bear. It is black and white and fluffy and fuzzy, and it walks upright, unassisted—which is odd for a teddy bear of any species or size.
  2. species
    taxonomic group whose members can interbreed
    Lumbering down the grassy mountainside in southwestern China—being careful not to slip—is a giant panda teddy bear. It is black and white and fluffy and fuzzy, and it walks upright, unassisted—which is odd for a teddy bear of any species or size.
  3. bamboo
    woody tropical grass having hollow woody stems
    Deep in the forest, high in the mountains—amidst the evergreens, the firs, the spruces—sits a giant panda. She’s plopped herself on the forest floor, and she munches bamboo shoot after bamboo shoot.
  4. chomp
    chew or bite noisily
    She chomps on bamboo sixteen hours a day, every day.
  5. fragile
    vulnerably delicate
    A newborn panda cub is exceptionally fragile: weighing only four ounces, blind, hairless, unable to walk (or crawl or scoot), unable to feed itself, and, somewhat surprisingly, unable to poop by itself (which can prove deadly).
  6. iconic
    relating to a symbolic figure
    The iconic round face of the panda is not chubbiness; it’s due to massive cheek muscles.
  7. distinctive
    of a feature that helps to identify a person or thing
    By one month old, the distinctive black-and-white markings that are starting to appear will be fully developed.
  8. crucial
    of extreme importance; vital to the resolution of a crisis
    Eventually, though, she secures her newborn in the den and heads back to the bamboo thicket to feast—crucial for her own survival as well as her cub’s.
  9. precarious
    not secure; beset with difficulties
    Resting on the forest floor, surrounded by her main food source, and munching contentedly, she is completely unaware of the precarious situation she is in—that her whole species is in.
  10. vulnerable
    capable of being wounded or hurt
    She is unaware of just how few pandas are left in the world, unaware that the giant panda—so rare and beautiful and beloved—is vulnerable. Vulnerable, and at risk of becoming extinct in the wild.
  11. extinct
    no longer in existence
    She is unaware of just how few pandas are left in the world, unaware that the giant panda—so rare and beautiful and beloved—is vulnerable. Vulnerable, and at risk of becoming extinct in the wild.
  12. nutrient
    of or providing nourishment
    Because of bamboo’s low nutrient value, a panda must eat between twenty and forty pounds a day, even in winter, to gain the nutrition it needs. (This explains why the panda bear doesn’t hibernate.)
  13. hibernate
    sleep during winter
    Because of bamboo’s low nutrient value, a panda must eat between twenty and forty pounds a day, even in winter, to gain the nutrition it needs. (This explains why the panda bear doesn’t hibernate.)
  14. periodic
    recurring or reappearing from time to time
    The problem with this diet (aside from being difficult to digest) is that bamboo plants have periodic massive flowering periods—followed by massive die-offs.
  15. habitat
    the type of environment in which an organism normally lives
    When these die-offs occur, the pandas’ source of food in an area completely and instantly disappears—putting the pandas in grave danger if they cannot locate more bamboo within their habitat.
Created on Mon Oct 21 19:56:46 EDT 2024 (updated Mon Aug 04 16:05:31 EDT 2025)

Sign up now (it’s free!)

Whether you’re a teacher or a learner, Vocabulary.com can put you or your class on the path to systematic vocabulary improvement.