Staff from the Qinling Giant Panda National Park Zhouzhi Management Branch accidentally discovered a wild brown giant panda when they were sorting out infrared cameras for selfies in the field. Unlike the previous black and white giant pandas, this time the giant panda was a "color photo". The eyes are brown, and except for the slightly white head, the rest of the body is light brown!

Brown giant panda This is not the first time that pandas have been discovered

Coincidentally, on May 28, 2021, the Qinling Sibao Science Park in Zhouzhi County, Xi'an City officially opened for trial operation. The world's only captive brown giant panda "Qizai" At the appearance, the chubby giant panda Ge You lay down as usual, and the panda who finally took the color photo seemed to be very satisfied, eating bamboo happily, completely ignoring the crowd of onlookers!

The first discovery of a brown wild giant panda

On March 26, 1985, Lu Guoyou, a villager in Daguping Village, Yueba Township, Foping County, Hanzhong, was at an altitude of 100 meters above sea level in Foping Nature Reserve. A sick "brown bear" was found in the river valley about 1,200 meters away. It looks very similar to a giant panda, but it is brown all over. The areas where the hair should have been black have all been replaced by brown, and even the signature dark circles have turned into Brown circles!

After reporting to the nature reserve, the "brown bear" was treated and restored to health. Since then, it has been fostered in Xi'an Zoo and named "Dandan". Apart from the difference in coat color, this "brown bear" Other than that, it is almost identical to a giant panda, so the staff believed that this should be a giant panda, but due to the difference in coat color, it was called a "brown panda".

"Dan Dan" was about 13 years old at the time and weighed more than 60 kilograms. Its arrival opened the door to the world's only brown giant panda, but what was unexpected was that since the discovery of "Dan Dan" After this brown giant panda, brown giant pandas were discovered one after another:

The second one: In February 1990, staff from Foping Nature Reserve discovered a giant panda during an inspection in the Sanguanmiao area. It was only an adult giant panda, but when the staff came closer to observe it, it ran into the vast forest;

The third one: Found in Guangtou Mountain in Foping Nature Reserve in June 1991, weighing about 15 kilograms. At the same time, there was also a black giant panda, which entered the bamboo forest one after another. The staff determined that it was a mother and her son;

The fourth one: found in the Changqing Reserve around Foping in 1992;

< p>The fifth one: On November 1, 2009, a giant panda cub was found in the Sanguanmiao area of ​​Foping Nature Reserve. Another female giant panda looking for food nearby had a normal black and white fur color and was also a mother and child. Relationship;

This brown giant panda has been sent to the Shaanxi Wildlife Research Center by the staff because it is more special than other brown giant pandas. It is a relatively pure brown color. The coat color of other brown giant pandas found It’s just a relatively large area of ​​brown patches. In comparison, Qizai’s brown color looks very elegant!

This seventh cub is also the seventh cub mentioned above when the Qinling Sibao Science Park in Zhouzhi County, Xi'an City was officially put into trial operation. At this time, it was already plump and looked like an adult giant panda!

Where did the brown wild giant panda come from?

In 2006, zoologists discovered a rare species of bear in the Arctic. Most of its fur was brown, and its nose was neither polar bear nor grizzly bear. It seemed to be two different species. Bear hybrid!

After identification, scientists believe that this kind of bear is the "love crystal" caused by the encounter between polar bears and grizzly bears after they migrated south. This is because since global warming, sea ice in the Arctic has continued to melt and the environment has deteriorated. Polar bears in summer They had to land in search of food, which led to an unexpected encounter with an Alaskan grizzly bear, which led to this somewhat unexpected result!

The flawless white polar bear has been defiled by a grizzly bear, and the culprit is global warming. Is this the way out for global warming that polar bears are looking for? It doesn’t seem to be a particularly bad result, at least the polar bear already has a successor!

Where did the brown giant panda come from?

Either black or white, either white or black, this is the only sign of the giant panda, so when a brown giant panda suddenly appears, our first reaction is also which grizzly bear is the national treasure giant panda? Or the brown bear was fucked by Gong Suannu. This is really unacceptable!

Most The possible culprit is the brown bear. After all, giant pandas have brown fur. But what is curious is that brown bears in China are distributed in Northeast China and Tibet. They seem to be a bit far away from the Qinling Mountains!

Asian black bears are widely distributed, almost all over China, but the problem is that the brown coat color is not suspicious of black bears, right?

Tibetan Brown Bears

In fact, zoologists have also found that these brown giant pandas are no different from other giant pandas. The only difference is the coat color, so the possibility of exotic hybridization is very high. It can be ruled out in probability, so the most likely cause is genetic mutation, but what is curious is that brown giant pandas only appear in Foping Nature Reserve, and such brown giant pandas have never been found in Wolong Nature Reserve in Sichuan. This is another reason. How to explain?

Scientists are also confused. It stands to reason that genetic mutations are calculated by probability. There are 13 giant panda reserves in my country. Why does Foping Reserve appear? Scientists have the following speculations:

1. The abnormal content of certain components in the soil and water sources in the Qinling area may affect the synthesis of melanin;

2. A certain element in the Foping Reserve There are abnormal radioactivity in some areas, and mutations are induced by the outside world;

3. Atavism, it is believed that giant pandas were brown in the early days, which is just an atavism;

4. A recessive gene that controls coat color Dominant expression, such as MC1R gene, ASIP gene, TYRP1 gene and STX17 gene;

In April 1989, the brown giant panda Dandan was in heat and mated with another black and white Wanwan. In August of that year A female cub was born on the 31st, and it was later found that the coat color was normal black and white. Since Wanwan is a giant panda with a "standard color scheme", from this perspective, although the recessive gene is more likely to be dominantly expressed, Still lack of evidence!

However, one fact that needs to be explained is that there are still some differences in coat color between the giant pandas in the Qinling area and the giant pandas in the Sichuan area. The giant pandas in Sichuan are pure black and white, while the Qinling area has some brown and black. The two evolved independently, so the giant pandas in the Qinling area have formed a subspecies!

However, pure brown colors like Qizai are still a bit confusing to scientists. However, one thing that can be confirmed is that research on giant panda fur color is very rare in China. So until now, why does "Qizai" have such a color? There is no scientific explanation for the fact that it is pure brown!