When it comes to the giant panda, it can be said that it is an animal loved by many people around the world. At the same time, as a national treasure of China and an animal with an evolutionary history of at least 8 million years, the giant panda also has great significance. The value of scientific research can be said to be extremely precious. However, what is interesting is that although giant pandas like to eat bamboo, in fact, giant pandas are out-and-out carnivores. What is going on?

Why did giant pandas become vegetarians? Activists?

It can be seen from the daily diet of giant pandas that 99% of the main food of giant pandas is bamboo. This also makes many people mistakenly believe that giant pandas are herbivores. However, giant pandas are A kind of bear that looks naive and harmless to humans and animals, but is actually very dangerous in nature. And although giant pandas have been eating bamboo for millions of years, in fact, their teeth and digestive systems are still It remains as it is without any change.

In particular, the teeth of the giant panda are still very powerful in terms of bite force, which also makes the giant panda still a carnivore, and its overall strength is also very powerful among carnivores, better than that of the brown bear , black bears and other familiar bears are much more powerful.

So, since they are carnivores? , why don’t giant pandas eat meat? Scientists have also analyzed various reasons for this. First of all, we need to find the reason from the giant panda’s habitat.

Although giant pandas are now national treasures, before the 1950s, giant pandas were not actually well known. They were mainly distributed in plateau areas such as Sichuan, where there were not enough prey. They provide meat.

And because of the lack of relatively large animals, giant pandas have to prey on smaller animals if they want to eat meat. Since the difficulty of preying is relatively high, in the process of preying, It consumes a lot of calories, which means that the nutrients the giant panda gets from eating meat are simply not enough for it to maintain its own energy.

But in their habitat? Bamboo is abundant in the land, so giant pandas chose to eat bamboo. Eventually, with the evolution from generation to generation, their main food now becomes bamboo.

Secondly, through gene sequencing, scientists have also discovered that the reason why giant pandas have become less fond of eating meat is also related to the genes in their bodies.

In 2009, Chinese scientists published a research paper on giant pandas in the internationally authoritative journal "Nature", stating that the reason why giant pandas no longer eat meat is related to their genetic mutations.

As a carnivore, why do giant pandas become vegetarians? The preference for eating meat is mainly influenced by a gene called T1R1 in the body. However, with the evolution of giant pandas, for unknown reasons, the T1R1 gene in giant pandas suddenly lost activity. At this time, meat originally felt very The delicious giant panda suddenly felt that whatever meat it ate no longer tasted delicious, and instead began to have a strong interest in bamboo.

As a result, giant pandas began to eat bamboo. Of course, because the digestive system of giant pandas is still that of carnivores, it also makes it very difficult for giant pandas themselves to digest bamboo. Therefore, fortunately, The giant panda's body has enough bacteria, which also help the giant panda digest bamboo fiber, allowing the giant panda to survive.

Being an unabashed carnivore has become one of the characteristics of giant pandas. After all, for other carnivores, this is almost impossible. From this, it can also be seen that the evolution of creatures on earth is progressing. The process was so magical.

Speaking of which, another special feature of giant pandas is their black and white appearance. Especially the "dark circles" of giant pandas are very interesting. However, in the Qinling region of my country, brown giant pandas appear many times. , what's going on? Have giant pandas been hybridized with other species?

A brown giant panda suddenly appeared in the Qinling area

In mid-April this year, the infrared camera of the Qinling Giant Panda National Park in my country once again photographed a brown giant panda. The appearance of this giant panda It looks very interesting. Its head, abdomen, and northern part are all white, but the color of the ears, limbs, and fur around the eyes is light brown, and it looks like it has faded.

At the same time, about two weeks later, two more brown giant pandas were photographed in the Qinling region of my country. You know, according to data, the Qinling region in my country is the only place where brown giant pandas appear. Researchers first discovered brown giant pandas in 1985.

Subsequently, more than 10 brown giant pandas have been discovered over the years, the most famous of which is "Qizai" who now lives in the Qinling Giant Panda Breeding Research Center. He was the first to be discovered in 2009. After being discovered for the first time, it reappeared in 2014 and was sent to the research center.

Although they are all giant pandas, researchers believe that the brown giant pandas that appear in the Qinling region of my country have higher research value because their coat color is so rare. So, why? Will there be brown giant pandas?

Speaking of which, although the recorded appearance of brown giant pandas was in 1985, according to a local old hunter in the Qinling Mountains, he had been in the Qinling Mountains as early as the 1950s. Saw wild brown giant pandas.

So, researchers believe that the brown giant pandas that appear in the Qinling Mountains may not be a genetic mutation of the black and white giant pandas. Instead, it may be that there are two different kinds of giant pandas living in the Qinling Mountains, one is We are familiar with the black and white colors, and the other one is brown.

According to some studies, brown giant pandas may be the original color of giant pandas, which also means that brown giant pandas may be an older giant panda species, or , they are due to the dominance of the recessive gene, which causes them to experience "atavism" and turn brown again.

Because it has been discovered over the years? There are quite a few brown giant pandas, which has also led many researchers to believe that there is a relatively stable population of brown giant pandas in the Qinling region of my country, and from a quantitative point of view, if they are confirmed to be a brand new species in the future, this also means that Brown giant pandas are rarer than the black and white giant pandas we are familiar with. They are also endangered species and also need to be protected. So, in your opinion, why do brown giant pandas appear?