The cute and naive giant panda is loved by everyone. Its black and white fur and shiny black eyes have captured the hearts of many people. Although giant pandas are slow-moving, cute and clumsy, they are carefree despite their status as national treasures and enjoy the meticulous care of humans all day long. They seem to have little ability to survive. In fact, they have a long history, as early as the late Miocene epoch 8 million years ago. It has already appeared, even before the birth of mankind. We know that the survival laws of nature are extremely strict. Many species that were once flourishing eventually failed in the natural survival environment of survival of the fittest, and could not escape the fate of extinction. Looking at the biological evolution process of more than 800 years, it is not easy for giant pandas to gain a foothold and reproduce to this day in nature where the weak can eat the strong. Nowadays, the status of giant pandas as national treasures is well known to everyone, and they are popular among people at home and abroad, but few people know their history of suffering.

According to the investigation of scientists According to research, the ancestors of giant pandas are Eo-pandas, which evolved from Ursus pseudo-ursids. They were smaller than today and looked quite like a fat fox. The early pandas mainly ate carnivores. Later, as the environment changed, they gradually evolved into omnivorous animals. They began to eat bamboo as well 3 million years ago. Later, their number gradually increased, their adaptability became stronger and stronger, and they continued to expand to subtropical areas and were widely distributed in many regions of my country. In the process of expansion, giant pandas have become more and more adapted to life in subtropical bamboo forests. Gradually, they have switched to bamboo as their staple food, and their bodies have become larger and larger, showing their current prototype. The heyday of the survival and development of giant pandas can be traced back to the middle and late Pleistocene epoch 500,000 to 700,000 years ago. At this time, their footprints were often found in eastern and southern my country, with their northernmost distribution being in Henan Province. The animals of the same period as the giant panda have long since disappeared in the long history, but they are the only ones that have retained their original characteristics and habits to this day.

Nineteenth century In the middle period, a French missionary named Armand David lived in China for a long time. During this period, he learned through the introduction of friends that there were many rare species in Sichuan that he had never heard of, so he came here to find out. While David was breathing the fresh air of a foreign land, he had a panoramic view of the unique natural scenery of the place. At this moment, an animal skin hanging on the wall of a house caught his attention. It was an animal with black and white all over its body, just like a sketch. It had a bear-like round body and thick fur, which amazed David. When he saw the panda fur for the first time, he couldn't help but walked up and asked about it. According to the owner of the household, the locals called this animal "white bear", "flower bear" or "bamboo bear". It is usually very docile. , almost never hurt anyone.

David was as excited as if he had discovered a new world. He couldn't wait to see the true face of the "white bear". At the same time, he believed that this "discovery" would definitely fill a gap in the world's animal research, so he immediately hired dozens of hunters to launch a hunting operation. After several days of hunting, the hunters soon delivered a "white bear" carcass. Due to the inconvenience of transportation, they captured the "white bear" and ended its life on the spot. However, a mere corpse could not satisfy David's ambition. He desperately wanted a living creature, so he decided to go into battle to capture it himself. After searching hard for two months, David finally captured a "white bear", named it "Black and White Bear", and made up his mind to bring it back to France to raise. Unfortunately, due to the bumpy road conditions on the way back and the vagaries of the weather, the poor "monochrome bear" couldn't hold on before reaching its destination. After his plan failed, David came up with a plan and decided to make a specimen of it and show it to the people in France.

David The completed panda specimen caused quite a stir after it was exhibited in France, and he became the first person to introduce my country's giant panda to the Western world. People are attracted by the rarity and cuteness of giant pandas, and come to China one after another to search for them, eager to catch one or two. Wherever there is trade, there is killing. While people show their love for giant pandas, they also start a bloody storm. Many explorers and hunters come here just to make a deal. They not only find ways to set up dragnets to capture giant pandas, but also hire local people to catch giant pandas. Hunters hunt together. For half a century, Westerners' enthusiasm for giant pandas has not diminished at all. They know that giant pandas are quite rare. However, given that there was little research on giant pandas in my country at that time, and there were no relevant protection measures in place, so in many cases For a long time, giant pandas have been a "hot potato", and both locals and outsiders can hunt and trade them at will.

In the difficult years from the end of the 19th century to the middle of the 20th century, the Chinese people have been brutally exploited and oppressed by Western powers. Like the people at that time, the giant pandas also suffered from the fate of being exploited and oppressed. In this nearly century-long struggle, Westerners have used the lives of pandas to pave a path of greed and dehumanization. After "stealing the limelight" in foreign countries, the panda's popularity in China has also increased rapidly. Later, starting in the 1940s, our country finally began to restrict foreigners’ hunting activities. After the founding of New China, foreigners’ hunting of pandas in China was basically eliminated.

Since 1963, my country has successively established 14 giant panda nature reserves in six major mountain systems, including the Qinling Mountains and the Minshan Mountains. At the same time, it has sanctioned illegal activities through the formulation and improvement of policies such as the Wildlife Protection Law. Individuals hunt and smuggle giant pandas. But no matter how time passes, human beings are still using selfish ways to determine the fate of other creatures. In the late 1980s and early 1990s, cases of Chinese people poaching giant pandas in an attempt to obtain high profits began to increase, and all of them were severely punished by the law without exception. After experiencing severe legal crackdowns and patient preaching by panda conservation workers, the number of cases of giant panda hunting has finally gradually decreased, and people have gradually gained awareness of protecting giant pandas.

Today's giant panda Pandas are still the darlings of people around the world. When giant pandas are facing the crisis of extinction, mankind finally wakes up. In recent decades, through the unremitting efforts of the Chinese government, scientific researchers and panda conservation workers, the living environment of giant pandas has been continuously improving. In 1983, Sichuan Wolong National Nature Reserve joined the international "Man and the Biosphere" plan, mainly protecting rare animals such as giant pandas. Until now, my country's measures to protect giant pandas have never stopped. With domestic attention, giant pandas continue to be loved by the world, giving rise to the emergence of "panda diplomacy". Pandas presented by our government to foreign countries are also near-top "national gifts". In 1984, my country launched the famous "Panda Leasing" plan. Although the cost was high, fanatical international friends were happy to accept it.

Giant pandas have won the world’s attention for their cute appearance and docile personality, but the pain of this race is hidden deep in nature. All of this started because of people, and I hope it will end because of people. All things have spirits. Faced with the fact that many wild animals are on the verge of extinction, human beings will eventually wake up.