Discovery of Giant Panda

updated on Apr 8, 2024

Giant Pandas Are Adored by All Peoples

Ancient Chinese Recordation about Giant Panda

There were many ancient Chinese geologist, writers and historians describing the Giant Panda in their books, but these records had not been greatly known by people because the pandas living in wild, remote and high-altitude mountains. There were about 20 different names had been given to the panda in Chinese language in ancient recordation, such as hu?xióng (?? "spotted bear") and zhúxióng (?? "bamboo bear"). Today, Chinese people call it dàxióngm?o (??? literally "giant bear cat"), or simply xióngm?o (?? "bear cat"). While the first world known discovery of Giant Panda was in nineteenth century since which the biological research of Giant Panda began.

The First Westerner Found the Giant Panda

In February, 1869, the God Father Armand David who was also a French biologist came to Sichuan to collect plant samples. He was brought to Baoxing County in northwestern Sichuan where has more than 25% species of animals and a great many kinds of plants, which is a great place to collect biological sample. He knew he had found the right place.

David in a Catholic church in Baoxing

One day, David was invited to a local family for dinner. He totally didn’t realize what he was about to find. As he wrote in his diary: “One day, after returning back from research in wild, a local family invited me to visit their home. After dinner, I surprisely saw a black-and-white fur of giant animal which I have never seen before”. David realized this discover would shock the entire world, and named it “White Bear” in his report.

During the next 12 days, David hired many local farmers to hunt a “White Bear”, and the hunters brought back one which is exactly like the fur he saw before – the furs are mostly white, except for the four legs, ears and eyes which are black. The animal has a big head with a short and round month, unlike other bears. There are furs under soles. On April 1, 1869, the hunters brought back another “white bear”.

Created A World Sensation

David believed it must be an unrecorded animal species, and only existed in China. He then renamed as “Black-white Bear”. He immediately wrote a letter to his friends in Paris, including the Professor Milne Edwards, to publish his discovery of “Black-white Bear” on newspaper. Later, his report was published on the newspaper of Paris Nature and History Museum – “The Blak-white Bear is large has a giant size, short ears and tail, short furs. Colors: white, but ears, eye sockets, tail cusp and legs are black… I have never seen this species. As I know, it must be the most beautiful animal compared other animal in the museums of whole Europe…”.

The Giant Panda Appeared on newspaper, published in the early 1870s

The sample of the “Black-white Bear” was brought to Paris, and created a sensation in the Biological study world. After research, the Black-white Bear was officially named Ailuropoda melanoleuca in biological system.

How the Name Giant Panda Obtained

Let us start with the word “Panda”which was actually borrowed from French. But philologists have found no any conclusive explanation about the origin of the French word Panda. This world was originally related to red panda, until in 1901, the inclusion of “giant”was used as prefixes in front of the “Panda”to reffer the “Black-white bear”(Ailuropoda melanoleuca ). As more and more people knowing Giant Panda, the word “Panda”now is most referring Giant Panda which has now become the world’s most well known animal and the treasure of China.