The appearance of our national treasure giant panda
Everyone is familiar with it
Especially dark circles and ears
Don't mention how cute
Well, you've seen it
Is a panda without dark circles?
May 27
Sichuan Wolong National Nature Reserve Management Bureau
It was first announced
The world's only white giant panda is in front of the face
It turns out that the giant panda "removed makeup" and looks like this
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White wild giant panda
The full video was released for the first time
In April 2019, a field infrared trigger camera at an altitude of about 2,000 meters in Sichuan's Wolong National Nature Reserve recorded the silhouette of a white giant panda for the first time. For nearly two years, the infrared trigger camera captured the white giant panda in various postures, or walking in the snow, or "meditating and thinking", as it passed through dense forests and small rivers, leaving people with a back, or a flashing hip back.
A silhouette of a white giant panda first recorded in 2019
After countless studies and judgments, layout and adjustment of infrared camera locations, the Wolong National Nature Reserve Management Bureau finally captured a clear frontal full-body image of the white giant panda at a suitable location.
Compared with the classic black and white color scheme of giant pandas, the snow-white and childish white giant panda cubs are very different, like fiction. However, these images were actually collected in the Wolong area of Giant Panda National Park, one of the most pristine and most critical habitats for wild giant pandas.
White giant panda
In its "selfie" photo, the white giant panda looks unsmiling, on its round and white face, the pale pink eyes and pink eye frames look bright, without dark circles, like a giant panda that loves to go to bed early and get up early. A circle of raised white hair around the eyes visually magnifies the eyes. The nose is an inverted triangle of pink, and a circle of black lines is faintly traced around it, with a snow-white snout, making it look less humble than other giant pandas, more serious and restrained.
Full body photo of the front
In another set of his shooting perspectives, the white giant panda's eyes are affected by the reflection of the snow sunlight, almost unable to open, the hair all over the body is golden white, it twists its chubby body, and the skin that should have been black on the four soles of its feet has also turned pink and white.
In another section, the white giant panda is covered with a layer of white snow, which blends with its coat color, and the snow falls on the eyes, like natural white eyelashes. Approaching it, it dragged a bamboo stick under the tree and "clicked" to eat.
Frontal photo of dragging bamboo
It is reported that albino animals are a peculiar phenomenon in nature. In the ancient historical materials of the mainland, there are records of albino deer, albino bears, albino sea turtles, and even albino birds. Albinism, although rare, is widespread in various groups of vertebrates. Albinism is usually caused by individual genetic mutations in animals, which hinder pigment synthesis in the animal's body, and appear white, golden white or light gold in external morphology.
Due to the initial monitoring conditions, it is impossible to know who the parents of this white giant panda are and what the color of its coat is, whether it can have the ability to reproduce like a normal healthy panda, and whether the mutated white gene will remain and continue in the population, further tracking is needed.
Li Sheng, a researcher at Peking University's School of Life Sciences, said: "This individual may currently be the first albino giant panda recorded in the wild since we have officially documented it. Whether its genes will gradually spread in small populations, and whether it can be stably inherited, is not clear at present, and more follow-up research is needed to understand. ”
Infrared camera photographs white giant pandas
Rare social images
Although this rare white giant panda looks a little special, it does not affect its interaction with its partners in the slightest. The staff of Sichuan Wolong National Nature Reserve filmed the white giant panda and a pair of giant pandas mother and son in the same frame, and the mother panda is most likely the mother of the white giant panda.
Wei Rongping, a professor-level senior engineer at the China Giant Panda Conservation Research Center, believes that the cubs in the picture are about 1 to 2 years old, while the white giant panda is close to the size of an adult. At the end of February, Wolong has entered the wild giant panda estrus season, when adult pandas are approaching or invading, the mother panda with cubs will generally show strong aggression, and will rush forward to roar fiercely to expel and even fight against it. This female panda behaved extremely "calmly" and did not quite conform to the general rules. There is a possibility that this female panda is the mother of the white giant panda, and the mother smells the child's smell and feels safe, so she can behave so peacefully.
White giant panda and wild giant panda mother and son in the same frame
The mother panda first noticed and issued a very short warning, and the bold panda cubs pounced without hesitation, seeing that the situation was not good, the white giant panda made a "bleating" sound while retreating, signaling to them that they wanted to get closer. After watching the cub run away after the white giant panda, the panda mother calmly continued to rub and tickle, and remained "calm" the whole time without stepping out of the tree hole for half a step.
In the next video, the white giant panda was driven away for 40 minutes and turned back to the tree hole alone, during which the mother panda has been active near the tree hole, nibbling on the "hair collector", it detected the white giant panda hiding behind the tree, the two giant pandas looked at each other for 20 seconds, the mother panda took the initiative to drive away, during which the white panda turned back and was chased silently but firmly by the mother panda.
Another video shows that four minutes after the mother panda left, the white giant panda returned to the tree hole and stayed for more than one minute, carefully sniffing every place where the mother panda stayed. Ten minutes later, the last video recorded the panda cub sniffing carefully before returning to the tree hole, which lasted for more than 2 minutes. During this period, another infrared camera also recorded the panda cubs looking for along the white giant panda footprints.
The white giant panda returned to the tree hole and carefully sniffed where the mother panda had been
Wei Rongping, a professor-level senior engineer at the China Giant Panda Conservation Research Center, said that according to previous field tracking studies, the mother panda and her children have many times to coexist in an overlapping nest, and individuals who leave their mother to live independently go home to visit their mother many times in three or four years, and it will show that they constantly show favor and want to be close, often the mother will silently accept or gently drive it away, while its siblings will show more willingness to chase and play with it.
Li Sheng said that at present, it seems that this individual has survived well in the population, in this natural environment.
In addition, the camera recorded rare photos of white giant pandas and another wild giant panda suspected mating and fighting.
At noon on April 16, the white giant panda was the first to arrive at the point, searching the four directions for more than a minute. After 15 o'clock, the white giant panda returned here again, made a simple "smell marker" and left.
Half an hour later, the white giant panda chased a wild giant panda into the area, and then began to hug and fight. This wild individual is smaller than the white giant panda, and at one point, the wild giant panda bit the back of the white giant panda. The fight lasted more than 4 minutes, with the white giant panda leaving first, and the wild giant panda who was beaten away five minutes later turned back and left.
From the results of the current research, the monitors judged that the white giant panda has entered the stage of sexual maturity and has normal courtship performance. Reserve staff are trying to collect DNA samples from it in order to get more biological information.
Source: Chengdu publishes WXID: cdfb-szfxwb