The first giant panda to go abroad was mistaken for a strange pug

More than a hundred years ago in the Western world, there was a legend among naturalists: In the mysterious southwestern forests of China, there lived a kind of "black and white bear" with a very strange appearance. They did not eat meat, but were fond of eating bamboo and fresh bamboo shoots. In the Tibetan areas of China, Nepal and other places, lamas called them "bamboo bears."

Giant pandas come to the West

In order to find out, explorers from various countries came to our forests in Sichuan, Tibet and Qinling Mountains in waves, hoping to get a glimpse of its full appearance. Among them, the first Westerner to actually see this strange bear was Armand David, a French missionary and biologist who spread Catholicism in China. In the 1860s, he was sent to China to preach. During his 20 years of living there, he recorded more than a thousand species of Chinese creatures, including 63 new species of mammals that were unknown to the Western academic community at the time. Among the species discovered in 1869, there is one that is our protagonist today and a lovely national treasure that later represents the image of the motherland - the giant panda Ailuropoda melanoleuca.

Scientific illustration of a giant panda | Wikimedia Commons

Back in the 1930s, American explorer William Harkness came to China with his newlywed wife, Ruth Harkness, a famous fashion designer at the time, trying to catch a live "black and white bear".

However, William Hannix died of esophageal cancer shortly after arriving in Shanghai. In order to fulfill her husband's last wish, his wife Ruth reorganized the scientific expedition team and entered the dense forests of Sichuan. The road to Sichuan is difficult, as difficult as climbing to heaven. After going through hardships and dangers, she finally got a panda baby weighing only more than two kilograms and named it "Su Lin".

Ruth and Sue Lin | Wikimedia Commons

The role of black and white

From the discovery and study of giant pandas to the successful breeding of giant pandas by Chinese scientists despite numerous difficulties, it has been more than a hundred years of ups and downs. However, people still cannot reach a consensus on the question of "why giant pandas are black and white". At least we are sure that in the long years before humans discovered them, the black and white of giant pandas was definitely not for cuteness. According to some opinions in the current scientific community, there are several hypotheses to explain the black and white of pandas:

"Protective coloration" theory: The panda's native habitat is often covered in heavy snow, and its white fur can blend well into the snow. The black markings on its body and limbs look like two tree shadows from a distance. This is a protective coloration with extremely strong camouflage.

Why are giant pandas black and white? There is still no accurate answer | Pixabay

"Face recognition" says: The "dark circles" under the panda's eyes are certainly not the result of not sleeping well. The panda is a mammal with strong territoriality, but the territories of different individuals may overlap. The "dark circles" under the panda's eyes can be used as a means for them to identify their own kind, similar to the facial recognition between us humans and our friends. "Fake eyes" says: The panda's little black ears pressed on this big round head really have no function except to be cute in my opinion...but scientists think otherwise. In the vast snow-capped mountains, these silly big fat pandas gnaw on bamboo and often ignore the surrounding movements. The two black ears on their heads look like two eyes on the top of their heads to monitor the opposite side. This may be their killer weapon to intimidate enemies or competitors.

Giant panda cubs | Pixabay

Calendar Girl's Recommendation

Some small owls, such as the collared owl, have two black spots on the back of their heads, which look like a pair of eyes. When prey sees the "fake eyes", they hide behind them, unaware that they are being stared at by the real "cat's eyes".

Even if I turn my head away, I can still "stare" at you | Oriental Bird Images

Giant panda watching a short movie

Although we have all heard the legend that "the giant panda is a creature with very weak survival ability" and even "if it weren't for humans, they would have naturally become extinct." In fact, this is not the case. The giant panda's special living conditions and low breeding efficiency have caused us to misunderstand it for a while. In fact, the giant panda's bite force is amazing, ranking in the top ten among terrestrial carnivores. If you calculate the ratio of bite force to body size, they even exceed the largest bear - the polar bear! You should know that the round head of the giant panda means that they have well-developed jaw muscles, which are not used to bring a sense of humor to humans, but are sharp weapons for biting hard bamboo.

The giant panda's teeth should not be underestimated | Pixabay

The low reproduction rate of wild pandas is also a misunderstanding. Generally, female giant pandas begin to reproduce at the age of 6, and give birth once every two years on average, giving birth to about five litters in their lifetime. This number is a bit pitiful for cats and mice, but it is also normal for bears. After a female giant panda occasionally gives birth to 2-3 cubs, she can usually only raise one, and often leaves the cub for several hours to eat. This gave early zoologists the illusion that pandas are prone to "abandoning babies." Chinese researchers have also made the mistake of forcibly adopting wild giant pandas as "abandoned babies."

Cute | Sepht / Wikimedia Commons

At the same time, giant pandas are not willing to mate too much. Chinese scientific research institutions have even come up with the ingenious idea of ​​letting pandas watch "small movies" of their own kind to increase their mating frequency. However, when we don't understand the lifestyle of an animal, it is normal for it to have difficulty reproducing. At this time, saying "pandas are just delicate" is an overly arbitrary conclusion... In the wild, giant pandas have several square kilometers of territory, and male giant pandas will gather together to compete with each other to win the hearts of beautiful women, which is impossible under artificial conditions.

Calendar Girl's Tips

A similar situation also happened to another animal star, the cheetah. Female cheetahs can only reproduce after being chased and courted by multiple male cheetahs. The emperors of the Mughal Empire in India kept thousands of cheetahs in captivity, but none of them were willing to give birth.

Of course, after years of exploration, China has made considerable achievements in breeding giant pandas. In July this year, at a press conference held by the State Council Information Office, it was officially announced that due to proper conservation efforts in my country, the status of giant pandas has been downgraded from Endangered (EN) to Vulnerable (VU) in the IUCN Red List (in fact, this adjustment was made by the IUCN in 2016).

Giant pandas breeding at the Chengdu Research Base of Giant Panda Breeding | RG72 / Wikimedia Commons

Here is another tidbit about giant pandas: There are actually two subspecies of giant pandas. In addition to the relatively common Sichuan giant panda, there is also a relatively rare Qinling giant panda subspecies. The latter has only about 200 in the wild. They have rounder faces, shorter noses, and are more naive. The only captive brown panda in the world, "Qizi", is a Qinling giant panda.

Black and White Bear Crosses the West

Back to the beginning of this article, it was not easy to ship the young panda Sulin captured by Ruth Harniks out of the country. Ruth asked for help from many people and finally persuaded the then Nanjing Nationalist Government to declare Sulin as a "strange pug" and send her to the United States, where she was kept in the Brookfield Zoo in Chicago. The appearance of Sulin almost became the most incredible scene in animal exhibitions in the 20th century. In just three months, she created an unprecedented flow of 325,000 tourists! Ruth was also called "Panda Lady". However, due to huge commercial interests, the West set off a huge "panda catching fever", and Ruth regretted it.

Although the zoo took good care of Su Lin, she was ultimately defeated by fate and the lack of knowledge about giant pandas at the time. Two years later, in 1938, Su Lin passed away. There were many different opinions about her death. Some said she died of pneumonia, while others said she died of eating foreign objects. Although she only lived for two short years, Su Lin did have an indelible impact on the Western world's understanding of pandas and China. Afterwards, Su Lin was made into a specimen and placed in the Field Museum of Natural History in Chicago.

Sulin's specimen is housed at the Field Museum | Zagalejo / Wikimedia Commons

Perhaps, in Su Lin's time, what Westerners saw, in addition to the giant pandas themselves, was the "distant and mysterious East" that the white people looked down on with arrogant eyes and watched from afar. But the giant panda is not a colonialist curiosity, nor is it an "animal idol" that stirs up enthusiasm by being cute. It is still a mysterious black and white bear unique to China, living in seclusion in the mountains along with China's unique ecosystem.

This article comes from the Species Calendar, welcome to forward

If you need to reprint, please contact GuokrPac@guokr.com