Albino animals are a strange and mysterious class of individuals in nature. In the ancient historical materials of the mainland, there are records of albino deer, albino bears, albino turtles and even albino birds. Albinism can occur in a variety of animal groups, including our national treasure, the giant panda.
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The complete image of the white wild giant panda was released for the first time
A few years ago, a picture of a white giant panda cub appeared in public view, and this rare panda cub left only one photo and then was not heard from. Three years have passed since the Wolong area of the Giant Panda National Park that the white giant panda cub has grown up healthy under the protection of the local conservation department. The Sichuan Wolong National Nature Reserve Management Bureau has released for the first time a complete moving image of the adult white giant panda.
Compared with the classic black and white color scheme of giant pandas, the snow-white and childish white giant panda cubs can be called very different, like fiction. However, this image was actually collected in the Wolong area of the Giant Panda National Park, one of the most pristine and surviving critical habitats of wild giant pandas. Due to the monitoring conditions at the time, the personnel of the reserve only collected this slightly blurry side photo, and a video of the same blurred and flashing buttocks.
Tan Yingchun, deputy senior engineer of Sichuan Wolong National Nature Reserve Management Bureau: In April 2019, Wolong's infrared camera captured a white giant panda for the first time, and the initial estimate was about 2 to 3 years old.
After that, the Wolong National Nature Reserve Management Bureau set up a special research group for this rare white giant panda and carried out special monitoring. After countless times of studying the route, laying out and adjusting the infrared camera location, a clear frontal full-body image of the white giant panda was finally captured at a suitable location.
It is worth mentioning that the infrared camera at the same location also captured a picture of a giant panda with normal coat color passing by. In sharp contrast between the two, a giant panda that seems to have lost its black eyes, whitewashed its black ears, and removed its classic black and white face makeup, except for a faint vest silhouette, can hardly recognize its true identity for a while. Compared with the wild brown giant panda previously found in Qinling, Shaanxi Province, the coat color of this white giant panda seems to have faded to be simpler and purer.
Li Sheng, researcher at the School of Life Sciences, Peking University: In the Qinling area at the northern end of the distribution of giant pandas, there is another relatively rare panda color type, which is brownish and white. Wolong has documented a very rare species of albino giant pandas, possibly due to genetic variants.
According to experts, according to previous research results, albino animals are often accompanied by a number of diseases caused by genetic defects that cause morphological or physiological abnormalities. However, the white giant panda under surveillance is now five or six years old, and so far it has not been found that its behavior and survival are plagued by obvious health problems.
Li Sheng, a researcher at the School of Life Sciences, Peking University: This white giant panda, from the stage when it was still a cub, has been tracked until now, and it has been found that it has survived healthily.
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 the School of Life Sciences at Peking University: This individual may be the first albino giant panda recorded in the wild since we have officially recorded 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.
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An infrared camera captures rare social images of white giant pandas
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 captured this interesting picture.
Surveillance personnel at the Wolong Sanctuary installed infrared cameras in areas where white giant pandas frequent. Adult pandas usually live alone, and the white panda, along with several other normal-colored wild pandas around it, inhabit a mountain forest at an altitude of about 2,600 meters in the Wolong Reserve in the Qionglai Mountains of Sichuan.
A narrow tree hole has become a particularly popular place for a pair of giant pandas and sons to play. Two pandas, mother and son, have come here more than once, taking turns climbing and playing in tree holes. The nearby white giant panda observed for a long time, and it quietly pulled away the bamboo bush and approached the tree hole step by step. And the panda cub under the tree has been paying attention to the bamboo bush, and when he sees a white head sticking out, he does not hesitate to pounce.
When night fell, the infrared camera deployed next to it once again captured the white giant panda coming to the tree hole, although the small friends encountered during the day have left, this strange tree hole has become its exclusive playground. In other scenes, scenes of white pandas and friends communicating intimately without any obstacles are filmed.
Li Sheng, researcher at the School of Life Sciences, Peking University: At present, it seems that this individual has survived well in the population, in this natural environment.
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.
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Alpine valley Giant pandas fly freely through the bamboo shoots
What kind of natural environment can give birth to wild giant pandas, and what kind of mountains and forests do rare white giant pandas inhabit? Let's walk into the Wolong Sanctuary in Sichuan's Qionglai Mountains, the habitat home of this white giant panda, and learn about their survival.
Sichuan Wolong National Nature Reserve is located in the Qionglai Mountain Range on the eastern edge of Hengduan Mountain, which is also the geographical dividing line between the Sichuan Basin and the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau. The mountains are cut deeply, and the canyons cut through the rapids, which is a portrayal of Hengduan Mountain and Qionglai Mountain Range. The altitude difference can reach more than 5,000 meters, and it has the typical characteristics of vertical vegetation zoning. Wild giant pandas live at medium and high altitudes of about 2,000 to 3,200 meters. In the mountains, they wash away the traditional image of round piers and clumsy steps, and become a master climber with patience and endurance. To reach the habitat of wild giant pandas, people need to climb more than a dozen mountain beams and hike for nearly ten hours.
Sanjiang Protection Station, Sichuan Wolong National Nature Reserve Management Bureau Liu Liang: It has been a four-hour walk now, but I have crossed more than 20 rivers, and there may be nearly 30 rivers ahead, and I can reach today's destination at about 6 pm.
Where human strength is so difficult, wild pandas travel easily and freely up and down. If they wish, they can also climb the mountains above 3,500 meters above sea level to experience the cold of ice and snow, or descend to the canyon at an altitude of about 1,000 meters to feel the warmth of summer and the fragrance of tender bamboo shoots.
Liu Mingchong, senior engineer of Sichuan Wolong National Nature Reserve Management Bureau: During this time, the giant panda tracked bamboo shoots, first from low altitude and then to high altitude, gradually tracking bamboo shoots.
Rare birds and exotic animals are full of colors
In order not to disturb the giant pandas, the scientific expedition team stopped in an area about 2 kilometers away from the white panda activity area. Instead, the monitors showed footage from infrared cameras deployed in the panda's area. I saw a group of birds flying in the giant panda's home, and many beasts gathered, which was very lively. There are several neighbors with the same "bear" in their names: the fat and cute Chinese red panda, the Asian black bear family full of warmth... The pig badger rolling on the ground is obviously much more handsome than the wild boar with "pig" in its name.
Topping with two thick horns is the rock climbing master rock sheep, the sambar have two horns and are curious, do not like to climb and climb the peak, only like to bathe in the cool mountain stream; The Chinese impala, led by his mother, is much more frank and bold; The humorous-looking Chinese whirlwind is actually brute strength and hot-tempered; And the beautiful Sichuan golden snub-nosed monkey has a very docile temperament. The red-bellied horned pheasant with colorful feathers, the red-bellied brocade chicken known as the "little phoenix", the green-tailed rainbow pheasant with fairy wind bones, and the golden eagle that looks at all living beings show the demeanor of birds.