Although Chinese have long lived in the same area as giant pandas, it was not until more than 100 years ago that they attracted global attention as a unique species.
The national pet giant panda
In the 1870s, the French missionary David first discovered the panda in Baoxing, Sichuan, which attracted the attention of the zoological community. To this day, the giant panda that David originally discovered is still on display in the National Museum of Nature in France.
French missionary David
The giant panda discovered by David is on display in the National Museum of Nature of France
Since then, foreign expeditions and expeditions have flocked to hunt pandas, and in 1929, Roosevelt's two sons went to China specifically to hunt pandas. Later, foreigners were no longer satisfied with hunting pandas to obtain specimens, and began to come to China to catch pandas, and when the giant pandas were first transported to the United States in 1936, the viewers were overwhelmed by it.
Roosevelt's two sons hunt pandas
Cute panda cubs are like calm and cute little angels, every move can trigger heartfelt pity and cheers, its invincible charm has far exceeded any other species, unfortunately, the unique habits of giant pandas make it extremely difficult to breed and breed, and the giant pandas that were taken out of the country have died prematurely, and none of them have given birth to offspring.
Cute panda cubs
In February 1972, when U.S. President Richard Nixon arrived in Beijing, perhaps even he himself did not expect that his visit not only broke the deadlock between the East and the West, but also inadvertently attracted the world's attention to the panda again, and it was after this sensational visit that the giant panda came to Washington at Nixon's request as a national gift, and the number of visitors exceeded 1 million in just one month.
Nixon is feeding pandas
In 1973, when then-French President Pompidou visited China, he also made a request for pandas, and since then, whether the leaders of various countries can ask for pandas as a national gift during their visit to China has become a symbol of friendship with China at that time, which is the unique charm of panda diplomacy. When Premier Zhou Enlai discovered this situation, he asked the Forestry Department at the time how many pandas there were in our country, but until the 1970s, the living conditions of wild pandas were still a big mystery that no one could reach.
Scientists investigating wild pandas
It may be difficult for people today to imagine why even the number of giant pandas became a big problem at that time, in fact, it is unimaginable hard work to conduct species research in the harsh valleys of alpine and hypoxia, even today crossing the giant panda habitat is still daunting, even at the cost of life, and even more frustrating is that even if you go deep into the jungle, the chance of seeing pandas is minimal, in 1975, scientists have worked hard to finally complete the first national wild panda survey in history. From the survey results, people found that even the most optimistic estimate of the total number of wild giant pandas is less than 2,000, and the biggest threat of giant pandas is the squeeze or even hunting from humans, and it is the expansion and squeezing of humans that eventually isolates the giant pandas to a narrow area in the six mountain plays.
The small area where giant pandas live today
In the 1980s, the cyclical death of Jianzhu made a vivid note on the living conditions of giant pandas, which was a seemingly sudden death event, when from Sichuan to Shaanxi, the main habitat of giant pandas, Jianzhu almost simultaneously appeared to bloom and die in large areas, and the giant panda's isolated habitat became a nightmare disaster area overnight. Although there were still some areas where arrow bamboo grew well at that time, the affected pandas were isolated from their habitats by the human settlements and could not migrate.
A panda playing
In 1985, the results of the second giant panda survey exacerbated people's fears, and after experiencing the blow of bamboo blossoming, the total number of wild giant pandas has dropped to more than 1,100, and they have fallen to the lowest point in history after spanning 8 million years. Faced with such a serious problem, how should we do it? Stay tuned for the next episode: Panda Story Six: Where Is baby panda? Artificial breeding of pandas is difficult for scientists. 》