Panda was once a name that only belonged to the red panda...

Original title: "The Neglected Life of the Red Panda"

Mention of Panda

Everyone thinks of the giant panda.

But in southwest China

There is another kind of "panda"

Red Panda

(Ailurus)

It is not the giant panda of childhood.

A completely different species.

Red and black color with ring pattern large tail

It is the most beautiful boy in the forest

("Who is calling me?" A red panda looks back in the tree, image source: Visual China)

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It has sharp teeth and claws

But like giant pandas, they love to eat bamboo

(Bamboo is the staple food of red pandas, picture source: Visual China)

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It has a round head and big ears

A lovely smile

(The red panda looks like it is smiling, photographer @严)

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It is timid by nature

But it will be "bluffing"

(“Are you scared? I’m bigger than you!” Red pandas can stand up to appear taller and thus intimidate others. Image source: Visual China)

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It sometimes dazes

Seems to be thinking about something

("Do you have any sweet snacks today?" A red panda holds his chin, seemingly in a daze. Image source: Visual China)

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Red Panda

A mountain elf who is loved by everyone but always ignored

Its name is overshadowed by the giant panda

It is often confused with a raccoon.

(Giant panda, red panda, raccoon, can't tell them apart? Image source: Visual China, map by Atu/Planet Research Institute)

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So that in addition to being cute

Most people know almost nothing about it

What is its relationship with giant pandas and raccoons?

What kind of hardships has it experienced?

What is its real situation?

today

Let the red panda be the protagonist for once

Take a good look

The neglected life of the red panda

Confused Name

1820s

French zoologist Frederick Cuvier

Received a new specimen from the East

Although only skin, claws and broken jaws

But combined with the description on the specimen

In his mind came such an animal

Cat-like graceful figure

The fur is as red as fire

White lines on face like clouds

The big tail has rings

It's just

“ The most beautiful animal in the world ”

With the publication of an article titled "Panda"

Red pandas make their first official appearance in academia

(The scientific name of the red panda, "Ailurus fulgens", was named by Cuvier in this article, which means "bright cat"; the original origin of the common name "panda" of the red panda in the article is still controversial. A widely circulated saying is that it comes from the name of the red panda by the local people in Nepal. Map by @阿土/星球研究院)

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That's right

The well-known panda

It was once a name that only belonged to the red panda.

(In the "Chinese Dictionary" published in 1935, "Panda" means red panda, map by @A Tu/Planet Research Institute)

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However, more than forty years later

The emergence of a star species changed everything

It is the giant panda

When Westerners first came to know it

Its name is still "Black and White Bear"

later

People found that it is quite similar to the red panda

Similar recipes

Similar wide round cute face

Similar "sixth finger" on the forefoot - pseudo thumb

Functions like a human thumb

(The pseudo thumb of both giant and red pandas is an enlarged radial sesamoid bone in the wrist that can assist in grasping. Image by @张琪/Planetary Research Institute)

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Various connections

Make the red panda and the black and white bear become "relatives"

Due to the larger body

The black and white bear was named "giant panda"

The original "Panda" was renamed

“lesser panda”

or "red panda"

As the giant panda's fame grows

"Panda" is now a synonym for "Giant Panda"

Under the halo of national treasure

The red panda is gradually disappearing

Even mistaken for a giant panda cub

(“I am a giant panda, not a red panda!”, image source: Visual China)

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Not only was the red panda's name "taken away"

Mixed looks are often misunderstood as other animals

The most common substitute is the raccoon

In fact

Except that the spotted face and the ringed tail are similar

There are many obvious differences between the two

Red panda red, raccoon gray

The former has a round face and fleshy paws, a relatively gentle personality, and is from Asia.

The latter has a sharp mouth and thin claws, nicknamed "Masked Bandit", and is far away in North America

(“Stop mistaking me for a raccoon!” The Procyonidae family includes multiple species, and the red panda is often mistaken for the raccoon (Procyon lotor) native to North America. Map by @阿土&陈志浩/星球研究院)

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In Chinese folk

The red panda is shaped like a cat

And the tail has a ring pattern

Being regarded as a wild cat

It is called "Nine-section raccoon"

(Red pandas are also called "nine-section raccoons" or "nine-section wolves". "Nine" refers to the number of rings on the tail, not necessarily nine. Image source: Visual China)

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In the West

It looks like a fox because of its red hair and big tail.

Commonly known as "Firefox"

Firefox browser is named after this

(A fox that appears on the stage, photographer @邱会宁)

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In the famous animation "Kung Fu Panda"

Red panda once appeared in TV series as a Kung Fu coach

But they are often mistaken for wolves or lemurs by the audience.

(Both the ring-tailed lemur and the red panda have rings on their tails, but their colors, facial shapes and other features are clearly different. Image source: Visual China)

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Not only is her appearance easily misunderstood by the public

For scientists

The identity of the red panda is equally elusive

So much so that over the past century

It has moved several times in the animal family tree

It once joined the raccoon family

It was once listed as a member of the Panda family together with the giant panda

Finally, with the support of modern molecular genetics

A discipline in its own right

The Red Panda family is closely related to the Procyonidae family

But it is distantly related to the bear family, to which the giant panda belongs.

The ancestors of the two species diverged 47.5 million years ago.

(Modern molecular genetics classifies red pandas as belonging to the superfamily Musteloidae, to which raccoons belong, while giant pandas are classified as Ursidae. Image source: @Visual China, map by @阿土&张琪/Planet Research Institute)

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Although the scientific community knows little about red pandas,

Already reached a higher level

But the media's publicity of red pandas

Often stop at cuteness

But I ignored the cuteness behind this

What kind of rough history and difficult reality is this?

The ignored hardships

Millions of years ago, in a forest in Europe

A mountain lion-sized animal in search of prey

It has a canine skull and pointed teeth.

The name is

Short-snouted dog

(Simocyon)

It is an ancient relative of the red panda.

After searching for food in vain, a deep pit suddenly appeared.

There were several dead animals lying at the bottom of the pit.

A tempting meal is delivered to you.

It jumped into the pit

After eating, he tried to climb out of the pit.

However, the slippery pit walls trapped it there forever

This difficult period was recorded in the form of fossils.

(This natural trap located in present-day Spain trapped many animals, including the extinct red panda species Simocyon batalleri, map by @Zhang Qi/Planet Research Institute)

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Short-snouted dogs are typical carnivores

Very different from today's red pandas

But their forefoot has evolved a pseudo-thumb

With this "one finger power"

It walks on the tree as if it were flat ground

Widely spread across the Northern Hemisphere

Another branch of the red panda family

The size of the red panda subfamily has begun to shrink

Switching to an omnivore or vegetarian diet

This included the ancestors of modern red pandas.

Great changes in mountains and rivers over millions of years

Evolutionary branches of the red panda family

They've all reached a dead end.

Only one branch of the genus Red Panda remains

Becoming a precious living fossil

(To date, nine genera of Ailuridae have been discovered, eight of which are extinct, including Canis and Ailuropoda of Ailurinae. Map by @张琪/Planetary Research Institute)

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The red panda family fighting alone

It has experienced several severe ice ages.

Now retreating to a corner

Only two types remain

The face is as white as powder.

Distributed in the Himalayas

Himalayan Red Panda

(Ailurus fulgens)

The ones with brownish-red complexion and slightly larger heads are

Distributed in the Hengduan Mountains

Chinese red panda

(Ailurus styani)

(In the past, it was believed that there was only one species of red panda, divided into two subspecies, the Himalayan red panda corresponds to the nominate subspecies, and the Chinese red panda corresponds to the western Sichuan subspecies; new molecular genetic evidence shows that the two had diverged 220,000 years ago, and the genetic differences are sufficient to be divided into different species. Image source @Visual China, map @Atu/Planet Research Institute)

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The Yarlung Zangbo River is the boundary between the two

Himalayan red pandas live west of the river

The Chinese red panda lives east of the river

Do not interfere with each other

(The Himalayan red panda is distributed in Nepal, India, Bhutan and southern Tibet in the southern foothills of the Himalayas; the Chinese red panda lives in the Hengduan Mountains in Sichuan, Yunnan, southeastern Tibet and northern Myanmar in China. Map @Chen Zhihao/Planet Research Institute)

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The solitary red panda population is dispersing

Prefers mixed coniferous and broad-leaved forests at medium and high altitudes

The most important thing is to have a bamboo grove as a "canteen"

(Wawu Mountain in Sichuan is one of the areas in China where it is easiest to see wild red pandas. Red pandas' habitats are usually close to water sources. Photographer: Yang Jian)

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After all, the stomachs of our carnivorous ancestors are still there.

Red pandas cannot digest most of the nutrients in bamboo

To fill the stomach

They spend more than 10 hours a day

Eat up to 30% of your body weight in bamboo

This is equivalent to a person eating 100 bowls of rice a day.

This is different from the panda's rough way of eating the fruit with branches and leaves.

Red pandas only eat bamboo leaves and bamboo shoots

(Red pandas eat bamboo more politely than giant pandas, and their digestion rate is higher, but only about 30%. Image source: Visual China)

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But the energy provided by bamboo is really limited

Red pandas cannot hibernate like brown bears

Even in the cold winter

I have to walk in the snow to find bamboo

(“No matter how cold it is, we must eat!” Neither red pandas nor giant pandas hibernate. Image source: Visual China)

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but

Bamboo is not the only food for red pandas

To summer and autumn

The red panda will also add "desserts" to its menu

For example, fruits of the Rosaceae family such as Sorbus

(Red pandas in Sichuan Labahe Nature Reserve forage for food on a Rosaceae fruit tree; red pandas can not only taste natural sweetness, but also the artificial sweetener aspartame. They are the only non-primates found to have this talent. Photographer @何晓安)

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Occasionally I crave meat

Catch a small animal with ancestral sharp teeth and claws

Or go to the bird's nest to "make trouble"

Lie down after eating

Looks so restless

It is actually energy saving mode

After all, it's not easy to cook

(Red pandas like to rest on tree trunks or branches. Photographer: Wang Jincheng)

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No matter how thin the branches are

Can also hang on branches

(“I’m just bloated!” A red panda rests between thin tree branches, photographer @方叹士)

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The sun is shining

Climb up the treetops

Sleeping in the warm sun

In Sichuan, it is affectionately called

"Shanmendun" or "Shanmendun"

(The red panda lying flat may be thinking about "animal life", photographer @李若渔)

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But the life of an animal is never smooth sailing.

Can't lie flat all the time

Winter is coming.

Thickened "sweater"

Wrap yourself in a scarf

Wear gloves

(The fur on the panda's paw pads can keep warm and prevent slipping on the snow, and the big tail can be wrapped around the body like a scarf to keep warm. Photographer @林森)

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Can be dressed in gorgeous clothes

Unbearable summer heat

Red pandas cannot tolerate high temperatures

(“It’s so hot! Fan me with my little fan”, picture source: @Visual China)

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So for them

Warm and cool mountain forests are the best places to live

However

Such a good place is also a "canteen" for wild animals

Snow leopards, clouded leopards and mustelids are eyeing them

(Snow leopards and other big cats are natural enemies of red pandas, image source: Visual China)

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No! There are natural enemies ahead

Make a face to make them die of cuteness?

The beasts won't take this trick.

Sticking out your tongue is actually detecting smells

(Similar to a snake's tongue, the red panda's tongue also has many chemical receptors that can sense the smell of natural enemies or its own kind. Image source: Visual China)

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Once you sense danger

Change the lazy attitude

As agile as a monkey in an instant

(“The trees are my world!”, photographer @何晓安)

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To escape to another tree

The little short legs can jump 1.5 meters high

It is about 3 times its body length.

(Red panda jumps from one tree to another. Its body length is about 40 to 60 cm (excluding the tail). Image source: Visual China)

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Bright fur

Seemingly exposed

But from the perspective of the natural enemies under the tree

The red panda's legs and abdomen are all black

Hidden quite secretly

(Can you find out how many red pandas are there in the tree? Photographer @黄颖)

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But this doesn't work on the ground.

Therefore, unless it is about survival and reproduction

For example, eating, defecating, and finding a partner

They don't usually come down from the trees easily.

When you have to go downstairs

The red panda will show its unique skills

Climb a tree headfirst

(Red pandas are one of the few animals that can climb trees headfirst, image source: Visual China)

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This is because the red panda's ankles are extremely flexible

Can be rotated 180°

With strong gripping claws

Come and go freely

Red panda on the ground

Always be vigilant

All unexpected things will make them

Shocked into a "two-legged beast"

("Don't scare me!" The red panda will be startled by something that suddenly appears and stand up. The picture below is just for illustration. Image source: @Mark Dumont/Flickr)

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Humans thought they were frightened.

Surrender in cuteness

Actually, the red panda wanted to scare the other party away.

Stand up and raise your front legs

All to appear taller and more powerful

You can pounce on the opponent at any time

(Cute beasts attack! Image source: @Mark Dumont/Flickr)

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After all, I am a lone beast

Only by yourself

The "socially anxious" red panda

Useful smell communication

A guy follows the smell to find his partner

(The estrus period of female red pandas is only a few days each year, and males need to seize the opportunity. The picture below is just for illustration, picture source @Visual China)

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After a brief meeting

The female will give birth to a new life alone

(The growing red panda cubs gradually "colorize", and their fur color will not become bright until 3 months after birth; red panda mothers usually give birth to 1 to 2 cubs at a time, using tree holes or rock caves as nurseries, picture source @Shutterstock)

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Once natural enemies appear

The mother will hold the cub by the scruff of its neck.

Emergency nest transfer

(Under frequent disturbances from humans, red panda mothers may even move several times a day, which may hurt their cubs. Image source: Visual China)

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One year later

Losing the protection of mother

It will face the cruelty of survival alone

Foods lacking in nutrients

Enemies lurking everywhere

The difficulties of reproducing offspring

(A red panda is about to cross the turbulent stream, photographer @黄耀华)

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Tens of millions of years of survival test

The family can continue to this day

It's been extremely lucky

Unexpectedly

A new threat is coming

Everything it has

So vulnerable

The homeland taken away

In a forest in Darjeeling, India

A red panda is lying on a branch as usual

Taking a nap in the sun

(Red pandas sleep and move around during the day and night, and are more active at dawn and dusk. Image source: Visual China)

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The harsh sound of sawing wood suddenly sounded

Saw through the tranquility of the forest

Big trees fell down one after another

It suddenly woke up

My home is gone

Soon after

This forest was reclaimed into large terraced fields

(Terrace fields in India, habitat loss is the biggest threat to red pandas, image source @Visual China)

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No one cares about falling with the forest

Are there still red pandas that call this place home?

The survivors can only keep moving

Retreating to higher and deeper mountain valleys

(Yarlung Zangbo Grand Canyon, the mountains and forests in this area are the habitat of red pandas, photographer @颜纯期)

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Last century

The red panda has traveled as far as

Guizhou, Gansu, Shaanxi and Qinghai, China

Now it is extinct in these provinces.

This century

The red panda's global habitat has been reduced by half

They live alone

It is more difficult to meet similar

(Restricted range of activities will increase the risk of inbreeding among red pandas, which is not conducive to the health of the population. Map @Chen Zhihao/Planet Research Institute)

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Not only were their homes taken away

Red pandas themselves become targets

The invaders brought cold hunting gear

A bloody storm

A pair of "lovers" were separated

A "pregnant woman" was disturbed

A mother and child were separated

A child loses his freedom for life

In remote mountainous areas

Their warm and beautiful skin is peeled off

Wear on humans

Also made into quivers

Equip them with arrows to kill them

(Nepal, India and some ethnic minorities in China have the traditional custom of using red panda products, mainly Tibetans and Yi people in China, but most of them have been abolished today. Image source: @Alamy)

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In civilized cities

Their cuteness is sold

Become an exhibit

Become a pet

(The captive red panda is looking out the window, just for reference, photographer @刘泉)

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In the face of interests

Freedom and life and death have become commodities

Red pandas were first exhibited in zoos in 1869

Three red pandas travelled from Darjeeling, India, to London

Only one survived

More than 6 months later, it unfortunately died in a foreign land.

(Portrait of a red panda published in the Journal of the Zoological Society of London in 1869, drawn by @阿土/Planetary Research Institute)

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As red panda trading volume continues to rise

Their numbers in the wild have declined significantly

Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES)

All commercial trade in wild red pandas was banned in 1995

But in the dark

Illegal transactions never stop

2022

Sichuan Leshan Public Security Bureau uncovered a major poaching case

67 red pandas

Struggling helplessly in the small fruit basket

Red pandas are sensitive and easily irritated.

More than 20 people died

(The series of reactions of red pandas such as not eating or drinking when they are stimulated by external factors are called "stress reactions", which can be fatal in severe cases. Map by @阿土/星球研究院)

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These are just what is seen

In the places we ignore

How many red pandas are still being harmed?

We don't know

But the data is shocking

The number of red pandas in the world in 2015

It has halved in the past 20 years.

Fewer than 10,000 left

In the same year, the World Conservation Union (IUCN)

Upgrading the red panda from vulnerable to endangered

Countries have set up nature reserves

Prohibit illegal hunting and trading

(Giant Panda National Park is also the habitat of red pandas, photographer @赵永清)

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In China

The red panda is listed as a national second-class protected animal

The nature reserve covers nearly half of its habitat

Giant Panda National Park

The giant panda that once "took away" its fame

The little panda neighbor was protected by a protective umbrella

("Don't worry, little panda, I'm your big brother. " The giant panda is the umbrella species in the Giant Panda National Park. Its habitat needs cover the habitat needs of other species, allowing species in the same habitat to be protected. Photographer @陈建伟)

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China has also established

The world's largest population of red pandas in captivity

As of June 2021

Through scientific breeding

Chengdu Research Base of Giant Panda Breeding

The number of red pandas has reached 163

Rewilding training will help them return to the wild

(Red pandas at the Chengdu Research Base of Giant Panda Breeding are supplementing their nutrition; as the captive red panda family grows, the breeding base has established a "family tree" for the red pandas to avoid inbreeding. Photographer: He Yi)

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Here

The keepers will keep an appropriate distance from the red pandas.

Reduce human interference

Create a rich environment

Change feeding method

Prevent red pandas from being too bored

Repetitive behavior

(For the physical and mental health of red pandas, the breeding base has created a rich environment for them to encourage them to display more natural behaviors. This practice is called "enrichment". Image source: Visual China)

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But compared to the comfort of being in captivity

They may be more eager

Return to the freedom of the mountains

The most influential person in Birmingham, UK in 2005

Unexpectedly awarded to an animal

Babu the Red Panda

It escaped from its enclosure at Birmingham Wildlife Park

The administrator never expected

The short Bob is so active

Good food, a warm bed, and reinforced fences couldn't keep it

(Not long before this escape, the red panda Babu had already climbed out of the fence, and the administrators reinforced the fence for this. Image source: @BPM Media/Mirrorpix)

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This trip lasted four days.

Until the whole city is mobilized to search

Only then did they chase him back to the garden

Human concrete jungle

Mechanical behemoths shuttle between

How can Bob escape from this giant cage?

But instinct tells it

It's going home

Back inside the fence again

Babu becomes a star

(The red panda is surrounded by a lively crowd. The picture below is not the red panda Babu, it is just for illustration. Photographer @Yu Tong)

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But on its lovely face

Visitors cannot see sadness or joy

“How cute!”

Babu also didn't understand the tourists' exclamations

It wants to go home

(Humans cannot yet understand the thoughts of animals, but they have the same instinct to yearn for freedom as humans. The picture below is not the red panda Babu, it is just for illustration. The picture is from @flowermaze/Pixabay)

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The mountains and wild forests of my hometown don't care

Are red pandas cute?

But it can make it show its cutest side

Run wildly

Deep in sleep

"Wild Creatures

Only where they truly belong

Only then can we be truly alive

Leave that place

They may shine briefly like imported goods

But those eyes will go beyond this light

Forever searching for their lost homeland"

(Quote from John Alec Baker's "Peregrine Falcon"; the red panda in the Labahe Nature Reserve in Sichuan seems to be staring at something, photographer @Zou Tao)

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This article was created by

Written by : Mirror

Editor : Li Bingtang

Image : Zhou Xuguang

Map : Chen Zhihao

Design : Zhang Qi & A Tu

Proofreading : Lin Xuanwen & Wu Xintian

Cover image source : He Yi & Visual China

Audit Expert

Hu Yibo, researcher and doctoral supervisor at the Institute of Zoology, Chinese Academy of Sciences

【References】

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[3]Hu, Yibo, et al. 2020. Genomic evidence for two phylogenetic species and long-term population bottlenecks in red pandas. Science Advances 6(9): eaax5751.

[4]Glatston, A., Wei, F., Than Zaw & Sherpa, A.2015. Ailurus fulgens (errata version published in 2017). The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species 2015:

[5]Van Valkenburgh, B., & Wayne, RK (2010). Carnivores. Current Biology, 20(21): R915–R919.

[6] Zhang Zejun, Li Youxu, Wei Wei, et al. Nutritional ecology of wild red pandas: current status and prospects[J]. Journal of China West Normal University (Natural Science Edition), 2017, 38(01): 1-5.

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[8] Xiu Yunfang, ed. Guide to the breeding and management of red pandas[M]. Fujian Science and Technology Press, 2022.

[9]Xu Ling, Guan Jing. Research results on the Chinese red panda market[R]. TRAFFIC, 2018.

[10] Documentary film Cherub of the Mist, 2007.

[11] Documentary Red Panda: World's Cutest Animal, 2017.