GIANT PANDAS: ORIGIN, HISTORY, HABITAT AND CHARACTERISTICS

GIANT PANDAS

Giant pandas are among the world's best loved animals. They are fixtures of animal stories for children, an inspiration for toys, objects of diplomacy and propaganda and the symbol of the World Wildlife Fund. They used to roam much of China. Now, they are found only in a few small enclaves. About 1,600 giant pandas live in the wild, and an additional 190 or so (2005) live in captivity in China and zoos around the world.

In China pandas are known as “da xiongmao” (“big bear cats”). Their scientific name is “Ailuropoda melanoleuca” (“black and white car-footed bear”). For a long time it was thought that racoons, red pandas and giant pandas belonged to the same family in part because red pandas and giant pandas share the same name and both eat bamboo and red pandas and racoons look kind of similar. Recent analysis based on genetics and molecular biology techniques have determined that giant pandas are indeed a member of the bear family while red pandas are so different from bears and racoons they should be put in their own unique groups.

In a definitive study “The Giant Panda: A Morphological Study of Evolutionary Mechanisms” by D. Dwight Davis concluded: “Every morphological feature examined indicates that the giant panda is nothing more than a high specialized bear.” Pandas differ from other bears in they don’t move around much; their range is smaller; and they are almost purely vegetarian.

Websites and Sources: Wikipedia article wikipedia.org ; National Zoo nationalzoo.si.edu ; Pandas International pandasinternational.org ; World Wildlife Fund worldwildlife.org Facilities: Wolong Giant Panda Protection and Research Center; Chengdu Giant Panda Breeding Research Base; Living National Treasures: China lntreasures.com/china ; Animal Info animalinfo.org

Origin of Pandas

rendering of Ailuropoda melanoleuca, the oldest known ancestor of the giant panda lineage, which lived about 11.6 million years ago in what is now Spain, picture from SINC

Genetic evidence suggests the ancestors of giant pandas diverged from other bears 18 million to 22 million years ago. Between 20 million and 40 million years ago red pandas and raccoons split from a common ancestor that also produced bears. Animals similar to pandas lived between three million years and half million years ago. They were carnivores.

The discovery of the first skull of the earliest known ancestor of the panda was announced in June 2007. The skull was found in a cave in south China and is estimated to be more than 2 million years old. Evidence that the ancestors of pandas were carnivorous can be found in its last upper premolar and first lower molar which are specially adapted for shearing, and are known as carnassials. They are found only in carnivores. Pandas themselves date back to around 600,000 years ago. At one time they ranged throughout southeast Asia and as far north as Beijing. Pandas are sometimes called living fossils because they date back to the time of the saber-toothed tiger. For many centuries pandas were thought to be a mythical beast like a dragon or unicorn.

Jennifer S. Holland wrote in National Geographic Traveller: Because of gaps in the fossil record, exactly when pandas diverged from other bears isn’t clear. A jaw from Spain puts an early panda relative at 11.6 million years old, while DNA evidence suggests 18 million. And bones from a cave in China indicate giant pandas as we know them are at least two million years old. The exact timing and reason for pandas going vegetarian is debated, but those eons of adaptations leave modern pandas with some unique tools, including flat molars for crushing and a thumblike appendage, an extension of the wrist bone, helpful for handling bamboo. Interestingly, they lack any special gut microbes to break down the bamboo that has become 99 percent of their food—one reason they are relatively low-energy animals. [Source:Jennifer S. Holland, National Geographic Traveller, August, 2016]

Oldest Panda Ancestor Fossils — 11.6 Million Years Old — Found in Spain

In study published in online on November 14, 2012 in the journal PLoS ONE., scientists announced that oldest known ancestor of the giant panda lineage lived about 11.6 million years ago in what is now Spain based on two sets of fossil jaws and teeth discovered at two sites in northeast Spain.. Before these finds, the earliest undisputed giant panda fossils were dated to about 8.2 million years old and mostly came from China. [Source:Charles Q. Choi, Live Science, November 15, 2012]

The fossils date back to the middle of the Miocene Epoch, when the area was humid, moderately warm, and forested. Charles Q. Choi wrote in Live Science: The species belongs to a newly declared genus, Kretzoiarctos, which means "bears of Kretzoi," named after paleontologist Miklos Kretzoi, who had discovered other extinct panda species. The species is named Kretzoiarctos beatrix, with "beatrix" referring to a colleague of the researchers, Spanish paleontologist Beatriz Azanza. "The new genus we describe in this paper is not only the first bear recorded in the Iberian Peninsula, but also the first of the giant panda's lineage," said researcher Juan Abella, a paleontologist in Madrid at Spain's National Museum of Natural Sciences.

fossils from Ailuropoda melanoleuca, the oldest known ancestor of the giant panda lineage

This new bear would have weighed no more than 60 kilograms (130 pounds), making it more or less the size of the sun bear (Helarctos malayanus), the smallest living bear species. Judging by its teeth, it was an omnivore, but it possessed many dental features of bears adapted to eating tough plant materials such as bamboo."It had a very wide variety of food available to it, from meat and fruit to plant stems or even leaves," Abella told LiveScience. "We are unaware if there was bamboo in Spain during the Middle Miocene, but there were many other similar plants associated with humid climates available for Kretzoiarctos."

It remains uncertain whether Kretzoiarctos was colored the same way as modern giant pandas, as no hair from it remains. However, Abella speculated the primitive coloration for this group of bears was also dark with several white patches. This is based on the fact that most bear cubs have this coloration — in many animals, biological patterns seen among the young reflect what their ancestors were like.

These findings might suggest a Western European origin for the giant panda lineage. However, the fossil record of this group of bears is still too scarce and fragmentary to say for certain where they arose, researchers said. Another mystery: Why did Kretzoiarctos go extinct? "The most probable cause is likely to be the opening up of the forests, giving way to more open, drier spaces and the appearance of similar yet larger and more competitive species," Abella said.

Early Panda Ancestors in China

The earliest evidence of primal pandas in China dates about 8-9 million years ago during the late Miocene Period. Fossil evidence indicates that at this time the primal panda (Ailuaractos Lufengensis) — an arctoid with a carnassial food habit — lived at the edge of the tropical humid forest around the Lufeng Area in Yunnan Province. This animal looked like a fat fox. It is believed to have evolved from the Agriarcros Goaci, which inhabited humid forests from Hungary to France in Europe.

In early Pleistocene appeared,beginning 2.6 million years ago, the Ailuropoda Micrta, a panda ancestor appear. Fossils of this prehistoric animal have been were found at Liucheng of Guangxi province, Luoding of Guangdong province, Wushan of Sichuan province, Yangxian of Shaanxi province and Yuanmo of Yunnan province. By the mid and late Pleistocene, 1.25 million to 11,600 ago, years the development of giant pandas reached its final stage. In this period, Ailuropoda Milanoleuea Daconi began to appear, and was found widely distributed in 16 provinces and area in southwest, south, central and northwest China — including Zhou Koudian of Beijing, Shaanxi, Shanxi, Henan, Anhui, Zhejiang, Jiangxi, Fujian, Taiwan, Guangdong, Guangxi, Hunan, Hubei, Guizhou, Sichuan, Yunnan, and also in some other countries like Vietnam and North Myanmar. [Source: Science Museum of China kepu.net.cn]

The primal panda became extinct in late Miocene period and its lineage continued to evolve in central and south China. One branch, which appeared about 3 million years ago, was half the size of the giant panda that we see today, and looked like a fat dog. The fossil of this branch is named as Ailuropoda Micrta. Based on fossil teeth, the Ailuropoda micrta is thought to have evolved into a species of omnivorous animals which partially fed on bamboos.

giant panda skeleton

Around a million years ago, smaller-than-present giant pandas started to extend their living areas to the sub-tropical humid forest, which gradually covered the former living areas of primal pandas around Yunnan, Guangxi and Sichuan. Later on, the giant panda adapted to the life in subtropical bamboo woods and their bodies grew bigger and bigger. Between the 500,000 to 700,000 years ago, giant pandas flourished across a wide area. Among panda ancestors the Ailuropoda Milanoleuca Wulishansis was one eighth the size of the present giant panda. The Ailuropoda Milanoleuea Daconi, of the late Pleistocene Period, which ate bamboo, was about one eighth bigger than that of present giant panda.

The Pleistocene period distribution of fossils of giant panda subspecies is rather wide, covering much of eastern and southern China, to the north including the Zhou Koudian site and to the south including Taiwan Island as well as Myanmar, Vietnam and North Thailand. At that time the giant panda lived with the Smilodon (saber-toothed tigers), Stegodon Sinensis Owen (a prehistoric elephant) and Peking Man. During the mid and late Pleistocene Period, great environment changes occurred as large areas of glacier appeared in the Qingling Mountains and mountains to the south. After the Quarternary Glacier appeared — about 18,000 years ago — the number of giant pandas and the fauna associated with them declined. Animals like the Smilodon and Stegodon became extinct and giant panda disappeared in the north, and the distribution of giant panda in the south also shrank.

Did Pandas First Evolve in Europe?

Tom Metcalfe wrote in for NBC News: The discovery of an extinct panda that roamed the forests and swamps of Europe millions of years ago could reignite debate about whether the ancestors of China’s iconic national animal actually came from Europe. The only evidence of the newly-identified panda species — dubbed Agriarctos nikolovi — are two fossilized teeth found in a lump of coal in Bulgaria almost 50 years ago, according to a study published July 2022 in the Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology. But scientists say they show pandas were living in Europe about six million years ago and reinforce earlier discoveries. [Source: Tom Metcalfe, NBC News, August 1, 2022]

A 2017 report by China Daily — a news outlet run by the Chinese Communist Party — noted debate over the geographical origin of pandas goes back to the 1940s, when their fossils were found in Hungary. But giant pandas are now a celebrated national symbol in China, and the idea that their ancestors came from Europe is unwelcome there. China Daily said the notion is “still premature,” and quoted an expert from the Chinese Academy of Sciences to explain that pandas might have lived throughout Asia and Europe at different stages of their evolution.

Agriarctos nikolovi which lived in Bulgaria 6 million years ago, picture: Velizar Simeonovski

The newest European panda lived too recently to resolve that debate, and it wasn’t a direct ancestor of the giant panda, but the discovery of yet another panda species in Europe reinforces the idea that they originated there. “The paleontological data show that the oldest members of this group of bears were found in Europe, and the European fossil [species] are more numerous,” said the study’s lead author, paleontologist Nikolai Spassov of Bulgaria’s National Museum of Natural History in Sofia. “This suggests that the group may have developed in Europe and then headed to Asia, where they evolved later into Ailuropoda — the modern giant panda.” Spassov found the fossilized teeth in an old collection at the museum.

Paleontologist David Begun, a professor of anthropology at the University of Toronto, wasn’t involved in the latest study, but he was part of the team that analyzed the fossilized teeth and jaws from a 10-million-year-old panda found in Hungary in 2013. He said that scientists can’t yet determine whether pandas originated in Asia or in Europe. “We have a nice fossil record in Europe starting at least 11.6 million years ago, but we do not have a complete fossil record in Asia from the same time period,” he said in an email. “So it is impossible to say if they were there as well, but remain undiscovered.”

Pandas That Roamed Bulgaria and Hungart Six Million Years Ago

Tom Metcalfe wrote in for NBC News: Pandas are recognized in fossils mainly from the distinct shapes of their teeth. The new study suggests the newest European panda was a bit smaller than the giant panda. “Judging by the teeth found, we can imagine that the new species from Bulgaria was only slightly smaller than today’s panda,” Spassov said. “But its canine teeth were proportionally larger, probably due to strong competition with other carnivores.” The analysis showed, however, that the extinct panda mostly ate plants, although not almost exclusively bamboo like giant pandas today. Spassov said he suspects a common ancestor in the panda lineage had already adopted a mainly vegetarian diet, possibly because of competition from other predators for animal prey. [Source: Tom Metcalfe, NBC News, August 1, 2022]

He and his colleagues also suspect the extinct panda may have had mainly black and white fur, based on the coloration of both modern brown bears and modern pandas — research suggests that white fur may help pandas camouflage in snow, while black fur blends in to shadows and the entire pattern disrupts their visibility.

But Agriarctos nikolovi was probably the last panda to live in Europe. The study suggests the species lived mainly in swampy forests, as did the discovery of the fossilized teeth in a coal deposit. Europe was relatively wet at the time it lived, about six million years ago, but became much drier about half a million years later as the climate changed, Spassov said: “The severe aridification known in the Mediterranean as the ‘Messinian salinity crisis’ at the end of the Miocene [epoch], about 5.6 million years ago, was certainly not favorable for the survival of this forest species.”

Begun suspects the notoriously difficult breeding process of modern giant pandas, which has played a role in their decline, may be an evolutionary adaptation to the limited resources of their environment that earlier pandas didn’t share. “I can’t imagine that such a widespread and successful lineage spread out between western Europe and China could have survived this long with the reproductive biology of living pandas,” he said.

Giant Panda Numbers and Distribution

In 2021, China’s Ministry of Ecology and Environment said that China’s population of giant pandas was to over 1,800 and the animal was not longer considered “endangered”. Instead it is now classified as “vulnerable” Cui Shuhong, the ministry’s director, said that the panda population growth can be credited to China's reserves. Giant Panda Survey conducted with the help of the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) in 2014 estimated 1,864 pandas live in the wild, up 17 percent from 2003. Their geographic range increased by nearly 12 in that time, according to the survey. [Source: Marina Pitofsky, USA TODAY, July 12, 2021]

giant panda skeleton

China’s State Forestry Administration estimated there were 1,590 giant pandas in the wild in the mid 2000s, down from 2,500 in the 1970s. At that time they inhabited mountainous regions in the three neighboring provinces of Sichuan (1,200 pandas), Shaanxi (300) and Gansu (100). These pandas were scattered in 24 small populations widely separated by both geographic barriers and human encroachment in the mountains of Sichuan, Shaanxi and Gansu provinces in China. Thirty-three panda reverses have been set up, covering half of the panda's habitat.

The population of pandas is regarded as stable and healthy. The 1,590 figure is based on a survey by the State Forestry Administration in 2004. Before that the figure used was 1,110 based on a survey in the 1980s. After a census of pandas was taken in 1978, the Chinese announced there were only 1,000 pandas, when actually there were many more, in hope of focusing world wide attention on the plight of the endangered animal.

A study done in 2006 by scientists form Britain’s Cardiff University and the Chinese Academy of Sciences, using new DNA technology to analyze panda feces, estimate there may be more than 3,000 pandas in the wild — twice the number previously thought. One scientists who worked on the study told Reuters, “This findings indicate that the species may have a significantly better chance of long tern viability than recently anticipated, and that this beautiful animal may have a brighter future.”

According to records and ancient books, about 2,000 years ago, giant pandas were living in many provinces of China, including Hubei, Shanxi, Gansu, Hunan, Shaanxi, Yunnan, Sichuan, Guizhou and Guangxi. Due to the consistent expansion of human activity the habitat of the giant panda gradually shrank and today they are only found on the southern side of Qingling Mountains, in southern part of Gansu province and in the mountains and valleys in the northwest of Sichuan basin. [Source: Science Museum of China kepu.net.cn]

According to a survey in the early 2000s, giant pandas lived in the six mountain mountain-systems: 1) southern side of Qinling Mountains, 2) Mingshan Mountains, 3) Qionglai Mountains, 4 and 5 ) Major-Minor Xiangling Mountains and 6) the Liangshan Mountains, and were divided into about 20-isolated genus groups. Due primarily to the constant cutting of forests from the 1950s to the 1990s, four fifth of the habitat of giant pandas has been lost

Giant Panda Habitat

20080318-chongqing cnto.jpg
Panda habitat, the mountains
and bamboo forests of Sichuan
Giant pandas live in temperate areas, where the climate is similar to that of the U.S. and Europe, and inhabit montane forests and mixed coniferous and broadleaf forests where bamboo stands are present at elevations from 1200 to 3900 meters (3937 to 12795 feet). These animals were already considered rare in ancient times. Their range is now limited to a 29,500 square kilometers (11,390 square miles) area in the provinces of Sichuan, Gansu, and Shanxi in central China, of which only 5900 square kilometers (2,278 square miles) is panda habitat. [Source: LeeAnn Bies, Animal Diversity Web (ADW) /=]

Giant pandas live in the mountains where China rises up to the Tibetan plateau. The rugged landscape where pandas are found encompasses mountains over 6,100 meters (20,000 feet) high and valleys as low as 183 meters (600 feet). The pandas reside mainly in cold, damp coniferous forests with dense, bamboo forests at an elevation of between 1,200 meters and 3,500 meter (4,000 and 11,000 feet). The spend the summer at higher elevations and the rest of the year at lower elevations. Most of the regions inhabited by pandas receive quite a bit of snow in the winter.

The bamboo that giant pandas eat grows best beneath big, old trees. It is also nice for the animals to have trees with holes that can be used for hiding cubs. The majority of China's pandas live in 28 counties in north and northwestern Sichuan where other rare animals live such as golden monkeys, musk deer, red panda, Asiatic golden cat, clouded leopard, takin (a relative of the musk ox), five species of pheasant, many songbirds and wide variety of butterflies, moths and plants. About 230 pandas live in Qin Ling mountains in Shaanxi province.

Sichuan sits on one of the world's 25 biodiversity hot spots, the Qionglai- Minshan mountains. Special conditions that make the region unique are a byproduct of the area's wet climate and unusual topography, comprising ranges of mountains near the earthquake-prone Tibetan plateau. The ecological conditions and climate mean the panda's natural habitat has in some areas remained unspoiled for the last 8 million years.

Bamboo forest are generally too thick and impenetrable for humans, and making observation of pandas in the wild is very difficult. Naturalist George Schaller spent two months trekking before he finally saw a panda in the wild. He spent several years studying the pandas and on average saw one only once a month even though he was looking for them in the forest everyday.

There has never been a panda attack reported on a human in the wild. Most of the people that live around the panda’s habitat are Tibetan and Qiang.

Giant Panda Characteristics

Giant pandas are large plump mammals. They range in weight from 80 to 125 kilograms (176 to 275 pounds) and have a head and body length that ranges from 1.5 to 1.8 meters (4.9 to 5.9 feet) and a shoulder height of 65 to 70 centimeters (2.1 to 2.3 feet). The tail is about 13 centimeters (five inches) long. They are endothermic (use their metabolism to generate heat and regulate body temperature independent of the temperatures around them). Sexual Dimorphism (differences between males and females) is present: Males and females are identically marked but males tend to be 10 percent to 20 percent bigger [Source: LeeAnn Bies, Animal Diversity Web (ADW) /=]

Giant pandas have larger and rounder heads than most bears but otherwise their basic shape and body resembles that of other bears. An enlarged shoulder and neck region along with a smaller back end gives giant pandas an ambling gait. Pandas have a clumsy pigeon-toes walk but can move on all fours with great speed through the forest environment where they live. They can stand erect on their hind legs but generally don’t walk. Their front limbs are more muscular than the rear ones. Pandas are very flexible and can contort themselves it seems to almost any shape and relax in any position they find themselves in.

Pandas have white heads with black ears and eye patches. Their body has a white back ground with black legs, feet, chest and shoulders. Their bushy tail is black. In some areas the black actually has a chesnut-red tinge. The panda's coloring makes them very conspicuous at close range but makes them hard to see at distance when there is no snow on the ground. Sometimes conservationist come across rare brown-and-white pandas. Chinese naturalist Pan Wenshi of Beijing University believes it possible that the animals that preceded pandas were brown and white and the rare pandas may be the result of a "recessive gene that may date back two and half million years to the panda's origin."

Pandas have a sixth digit (toe) on their paws which acts like a thumb to help pandas pick up objects and grasp and manipulate bamboo between the grooves in their paws and digits. Pads of skin strip the leaves while the stalk is held in the panda’s mouth. This "pseudothumb" is actually a a pad of skin overlying a moveable, enlarged wrist bone. Pandas can hold apples like humans. The " panda's thumb" was the source of some of confusion regarding the panda's taxonomy and classification in the past.

Pandas have a thick pelt of hair, offering protection in the cold winters of its natural habitat. The coarse, oily outer hairs are up to 10 centimeters long and are extremely dense. The woolly underfur becomes somewhat spare on the belly. Their skull has a large sagittal crest that has become wider and deeper resulting in powerful jaws. The molars and premolars are wider and flatter than other bears' and they have developed extensive ridges and cusps in order to grind tough bamboo. A baculum (penis bone) (bony rod in soft tissue of penis) is present as in many other mammals. However, in other bears it is straight and forwardly directed, while in giant pandas it is "S" shaped and backwardly directed.

Giant Panda Digestive System

The giant panda oddly enough is a carnivore not an herbivore: its stomach and intestines are adapted for meat and its teeth are so strong they can chew through metal. The panda esophagus has a tough, horny lining to protect it from sharp, bamboo splinters. The stomach is thick and muscular and gizardlike. The rest of the digestive system is similar or that of other carnivores but because it doesn’t eat meat is lightly used.

Pandas don’t have a specialized gut like cows and deer for breaking down fibrous material. To get enough nourishment from the relatively nutrient-free bamboo, the panda has a stomach like a conveyor belt. Food is barely chewed, only 17 percent of it is digested, compared to 80 percent for most herbivores, and it passes through the body in as little as five hours. After a panda has sat in one place for a while it is not uncommon for it leave behind seven to nine kilograms of woody, spindle-shaped droppings. On average a panda produces 13 kilograms of droppings a day.

Japanese researchers have found a bacteria in panda dung that has shown to be more effective in breaking down organic garbage than almost any other known substance. In one experiment the bacteria broke down 100 kilograms of waste into three kilograms after 17 weeks, producing only water and carbon dioxide as by products. The researchers discovered the bacteria and found 270 other kinds of microbes in panda dung they received from a zoo.

Pandas often have digestive tract disorders. Mother pandas constantly move the infants around and roll them from side to side to prevent their intestines from becoming flattened or distorted. Young pandas often suffer from bloating when bamboo gets stuck in their digestive system.

Giant Panda Senses

Giant pandas can not see very well and are nearsighted. Because they spend much of their time in bamboo thickets that resemble the interior of corn fields, even if they could see well they could only see about five feet in front them. The pupils of panda eyes are catlike slits. All other bears have round eyes. The acuity of their sense of sound is not well understood but is believed to be fairly developed.

Pandas have a highly developed sense of smell and communicate through chemical signals: the male through a huge scent gland under the tail; the female through a similar scent gland and chemicals in her urine. Males also use urine-borne signals that they spread by urinating on their paws then rubbing their ears and rubbing vegetation. Males use their sense of smell to avoid each other and to find females for mating in the spring.

Pandas have very large olfactory regions in their brains. They can sense what happening with pandas up to several miles away by using their sense of smell. A panda's padded paws and tail are seemingly designed as "brushes for spreading its scent." Spectrometer analysis of pandas scents shows that they have very complex chemical combination that gives off a number messages such as identity, sex, sexual receptively and health. Males marking their territory apply a waxy goo to keep the scent alive for months.

Panda Lifespan and Health Concerns

The average life span of a male giant panda in the wild is about 15 years. Several have lived into their 30s in zoos. A panda at a zoo in Guilin lived to the age of 36. Many pandas die from internal parasites and genetic defects. They also develop arthritis, get testicular cancer, suffer from kidney disease and develop cataracts and go blind before they die. Common ailments suffered by pandas include roundworms, indigestion and lung disease. In 2015 several pandas died from canine distemper virus in the same rescue center in northwestern China. Some other pandas were diagnosed with canine distemper but recovered.

Diseases that impact pandas include 1) digestive system ailments that cause vomitting, diarrhea, and blood in stool, and ileuses (lack of the normal muscle contractions of the intestines); 2) Respiratory system diseases such as colds and upper respiratory tract infection; 3) Nervous system diseases such as falling sickness; and 4) blood and circulatory ailments such hemolytic anemia and seasonal febrile diseases. Pandas also suffer from all kinds of tumors, endoparasites and ectoparasites diseases, skin diseases and traumas. They are particularly affected by ascarids and tick acarids. [Source: Science Museum of China kepu.net.cn]

Among the natural enemies that pandas have to concern themselves with are Asian golden cats, leopards, jackals, wolves and yellow-throated martens, which will mainly attack the cubs or sick, weak and aging pandas. Because the full-grown and strong giant pandas still haven't lost the ferocity of their flesh-eating ancestors, they will not be afraid to face their enemies.

The oldest giant panda living in captivity — Jia Jia — died at the age of 38 at Ocean Park, its Hong Kong zoo home in October 2016. She was euthanized after her health rapidly deteriorated over two weeks, her owners said. Reuters reported: Jia Jia, whose name means "good", had been gifted to Hong Kong in 1999 along with another panda, to mark the second anniversary of the city's handover from former colonial ruler Britain. In recent weeks Jia Jia's food consumption had sharply declined from over 10 kilograms (22 pounds) to less than three kilograms (six pounds) per day and her average weight dropped from 71 kilograms (156 pounds) to around 67 kilograms (147 pounds). [Source: Reuters, October 17, 2016]

"Over the past few days, she has been spending less time awake and showing no interest in food or fluids. Her condition became worse this morning. Jia Jia was not able to walk about without difficulties and spent the day laying down," Ocean Park said in a statement posted on its website. "Her state became so debilitated that based on ethical reasons and in order to prevent suffering, veterinarians...agreed to a humane euthanasia for Jia Jia."

Basi was a female giant panda at the Fuzhou Giant Panda Research Center in southern China.. After Jia Jia's death she was the oldest living panda in captivity. Basi was the original model of ‘Panpan’, the mascot for the first Asian games. She died in September 2017, at the age of 37,

Albino Panda

In May 2023, the Wolong National Nature Reserve, in China’s Sichuan province, released video of an albino giant panda wandering in the wilderness. The video, captured in February 2023, shows the pink-eyed, all-white panda interacting with two other pandas, with normal black-and-white coloration, believed to be a mother and her cub, according to CCTV. The albino panda was first seen in 2019, when it was thought to be between one and two years old, and is the only panda with the rare albino mutation ever documented in nature, officials said. [Source: Mitchell Willetts, Miami Herald, May 30, 2023]

The Miami Herald reported: The nature reserve also released photos that show the albino panda wrestling, and possibly mating, with another panda, according to state-run social media account iPanda. “The reserve believes they were probably mating as the physical fight happened during breeding season,” CCTV reported.

Image Sources: Panda images: WWF and CNTO; Red Panda images: ailarus, Wikimedia Commons

Text Sources: Animal Diversity Web animaldiversity.org ; National Geographic, Live Science, Natural History magazine, CNTO (China National Tourism Administration) David Attenborough books, New York Times, Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, Smithsonian magazine, Discover magazine, The New Yorker, Time, BBC, CNN, Reuters, Associated Press, AFP, Lonely Planet Guides, Wikipedia, The Guardian, Top Secret Animal Attack Files website and various books and other publications.

Last updated March 2025