The giant panda (Ailuropoda melanoleuca) is an endemic and rare species of China. Due to its important ecological status, unique cultural value and evolutionary history, the giant panda has long been widely concerned and comprehensively studied by both Chinese and foreign scientists. Up to now, a wealthy of literature has been published. However, no literature is available in the systematic analysis on previously published literature in the giant panda research, especially using the visualized approach. Based on the two major databases of Web of Science and CNKI, this study firstly made a bibliometric analysis of 1221 English publications since 1929 and 1670 Chinese literatures since 1955 from three aspects: annual distribution of publications, research subject (authors, institutions, and countries), and research content. Then we analyzed the cooperation network between research subjects and the co-occurrence of keywords using a visualization software CiteSpace. Lastly, we reviewed the research history of giant pandas in the field of natural science both inside and outside China, and also discussed and forecasted the future research area and developmental trend.