Technical tips! "Ya Ya", "Meng Lan", "Hua Hua"... How to distinguish who is who among so many pandas?

After about 16 hours of flight, the cargo plane carrying the giant panda "Ya Ya" traveling in the United States landed at Shanghai Pudong International Airport on the afternoon of April 27, Beijing time, and "Ya Ya" returned home safely.

On April 27, the giant panda "Ya Ya" who returned from the United States was in the isolation and quarantine enclosure in Shanghai. Image source: Xinhua News Agency

From Xizhimen's third prince Menglan to Sichuan actress Huahua, actress Heye's sword-wielding bodyguard, Gaogao who is trying hard to find a job, Qizai, the only brown giant panda in China, and Fubao and Lebao who are spoiled like little princesses in South Korea, etc., recently, if you open social media, it's like poking a panda's nest, full of all kinds of giant pandas. But do you know how to "recognize the differences" among these pandas?

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First of all, it should be noted that the giant pandas we see actually have two subspecies. The giant panda is the only species of the genus Ailuropoda in the Ursidae family of the order Carnivora. There are currently two subspecies: the nominate subspecies of the giant panda that lives in multiple mountain ranges in provinces such as Sichuan, Shaanxi, and Gansu, also known as the Sichuan giant panda; and the Qinling subspecies of the giant panda that lives only in the Qinling Mountains, which is what we often call the Qinling giant panda. Although they are good brothers from the same family, due to the isolation of many mountains, these two types of pandas have not interacted for hundreds of thousands of years. The Qinling giant panda is more primitive than the Sichuan giant panda in terms of evolution and genetic diversity.

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From the appearance, the two types of giant pandas are actually easy to identify. The Qinling giant pandas have small heads, large teeth, and round skulls, which make them more like the tigers and other cats we are familiar with. The Sichuan giant pandas have large heads, small teeth, and head shapes that are more like bears. In simple terms, the Qinling giant pandas have round faces, round heads, and short mouths, like cats. The Sichuan giant pandas have long heads and pointed mouths, like bears. In addition, there is another less noticeable feature - the chest and abdomen of the Qinling giant pandas are mostly dark brown. The brown giant panda Qizai is the epitome of brown among the Qinling giant pandas.

Giant panda Qizai. Copyrighted image, unauthorized reproduction

So far, brown giant pandas have been found in China 10 times, all in the Qinling Mountains. If Sichuan giant pandas and Qinling giant pandas are easy to distinguish, it takes some effort to distinguish between individual pandas. First of all, excluding Sichuan female star Huahua, who is born with a "short and fat triangle rice ball", if we want to distinguish other pandas, the first thing we need to look at is the hair color .

Giant panda Huahua. Copyrighted image, unauthorized reproduction

In addition to the special case of brown, the black part of the panda's hair can be further divided into dark black, dark gray and light gray. For example, the performance of the pandas living in the Sichuan Giant Panda Breeding Base is particularly outstanding - just like the ink is gone, it was born light gray, which is particularly conspicuous compared with other black and white balls. Now it lives in the Panda Valley in Dujiangyan, Sichuan. Through its own efforts, it has become the same black as other bears, but from certain angles it can still be seen that its fur color is lighter. After looking at the color, you can look at the ears. People who often watch panda videos will find that these bear ears really grow in different ways. For example, Menglan, the "Third Prince of Xizhimen", has a pair of conspicuous fan-shaped ears, which is very consistent with his identity as a sunny and cheerful big boy.

Cute orchid. The picture comes from the Internet

Aijiu, a fat girl who was famous for being fat since birth and became the heaviest panda cub ever born in the giant panda base, has a pair of very elegant elf ears, as if if she shakes her head, the ears will flap and fly away.

Ai Jiu. Image source: Chengdu Research Base of Giant Panda Breeding

He Ye, the naughty younger brother of the female star Hua Hua, has introverted little ears that are totally inconsistent with his personality. His ears are small and pointed.

Yuan Xiao, the "gangster" panda known for his fierce face, has ears that are in line with the "bear setting" and are domineering. Coupled with the fierce dark circles under his eyes, he looks like someone who is not someone to be trifled with.

In addition to the shape of the ears, the shape and size of the dark circles are also auxiliary identification features.

For example, Runyue, who is nicknamed "Ergou", has built-in eyeliner, with two strokes of flying out around the dark circles, making him very easy to recognize.

Runyue. Image source: Chengdu Research Base of Giant Panda Breeding

Advanced panda fans can also look at the shoulder straps. Looking from the back of the giant panda, the black part that runs horizontally is the shoulder strap. Menglan's shoulder straps are relatively wide, while Heye's shoulder straps are very narrow. If the giant panda happens to be facing you, you can also look at their face shape, the height of their nose bridge and other details...

Put all these details together and you will definitely become the person who is best at identifying bears in the zoo.

However, these identification methods are only for those giant pandas that sit obediently in the zoo for you to see; for those giant pandas that live freely in the wild, it is really harder than climbing a mountain to see their full appearance.

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So how do scientists distinguish these elusive wild giant pandas?

The answer is simple, look at the poop and find footprints. The bite method is a traditional method for identifying individual giant pandas in the wild. By analyzing the length and shape of the bamboo nodes in the panda's poop, as well as the size of the territory and other information, it is possible to identify individuals and make a rough estimate. But with the development of technology, scientists are now beginning to use DNA identification methods . The poop is covered with a layer of mucus secreted by the intestines, which can protect the panda's intestines from being cut by fibers. By collecting this mucus, it is possible to identify individual pandas in experiments, analyze their health status and other information. However, this identification method is only suitable for very fresh poop. If it has changed from a "wet green ball" to a "dry green ball", it cannot be used.

Panda feces. Copyright image, no permission to reprint

Footprints are a common method used by scientists to track wild animals in the wild. By analyzing footprints, scientists can find information about pandas’ life trajectory, living conditions, and many other aspects. Pandas’ footprints are also very special. The pseudo-thumbs they have evolved allow them to grasp bamboo, which also gives scientists a lot of information when analyzing footprints. In short, for scientists in the wild, there is much less information available to identify pandas. And even if they can identify individual pandas, they may not even see the original panda.

Author: Hydra Science Author

Reviewer: Huang Chengming, Researcher, Institute of Zoology, Chinese Academy of Sciences

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