Wolong, Sichuan: The world's only white giant panda has grown up separated from its mother

Source: CCTV news client

On January 15, the Giant Panda National Park Administration released a video footage of the world's only white giant panda in the wild. By the end of 2020, the infrared camera controlled by The wild deployment of Wolong in Sichuan had only captured the activities of this white giant panda twice, and the picture was extremely precious.

The white panda in the picture is walking in the snow or "meditating and thinking". It sits close to the tree with the infrared camera mounted, with its back to the camera all the way. After 3 days, it crossed the dense forest and the small river ditch, appeared in another infrared camera on the ridge 1 km away, and then took about 10 minutes to reach the foot of the mountain, where the infrared camera recorded the back of it leaving.

Li Sheng, member of the IUCN Bear Expert Group and researcher at the School of Life Sciences of Peking University: In the video, this white giant panda has a steady pace, a strong body, and a bright coat color, which can be seen as a healthy wild giant panda. The phenomenon of "albinism", although rare, is widespread in various groups of vertebrates. "Ingerraine" is usually caused by genetic mutations in individual animals, which hinder the synthesis of pigments in the animal and appear white, golden white, or light gold in external morphology. Simple "albinism" mutations do not necessarily affect the survival of individual animals. This white giant panda can grow up to about 3 years old, indicating that it has basically adapted to the living environment and is in a good state of survival.

On May 25, 2019, the Sichuan Wolong National Nature Reserve Administration released a photo of the white giant panda for the first time, and a wild infrared trigger camera at an altitude of about 2,000 meters in the reserve recorded an image of a giant panda in mid-April, which clearly showed the unique morphological characteristics of this panda. The panda has white fur, white claws and red eyes, and is passing through lush, pristine deciduous broad-leaved forests. According to expert analysis, based on these external features on the photo, it can be judged that the panda is an albino individual. Judging by its size, this is a sub-adult or young panda, about 1 to 2 years old. In order to follow up and study this white giant panda for a long time, the Sichuan Wolong National Nature Reserve Management Bureau has set up a special white giant panda conservation research project. More than 30 experts from universities, scientific research institutions and protected areas participated in the one-year period to carry out grid infrared camera control of the 15 square kilometers of the white giant panda discovery area.

Tan Yingchun, executive of the Sichuan Wolong White Giant Panda Conservation Research Project: Judging from the images taken by the infrared camera, this white giant panda has grown a lot from May 2019 to February 2020 and has a strong physique. Compared with the all-over white of its childhood, the hair on its limbs in adulthood also shows a faint golden color. In 2020, the two records of this white giant panda are alone, we calculate that it is currently about 3 years old, judging that it has left its mother and established itself as a "portal".

This judgment was endorsed by Li Sheng, an expert at Peking University, who believes that the white giant panda may have migrated from its birthplace to its surrounding habitats, judging from the fact that the area has not been photographed since then. Further surveillance needs to be expanded and more evidence will need to be sought using techniques such as DNA testing. (CCTV reporter Jiang Shulin)