Q: When did the western world begin to know about giant pandas?
A: March 11, 1869.
Q: Who was the first Westerner to discover giant pandas? What is his occupation?
A: A Frenchman called Armand David. He was both a missionary and a taxidermist working for a museum.
Q: Who was the first to take a live giant panda out of China? Is she a zoologist?
A: Her name is Ruth Harkness. She is neither a zoologist nor a zoo employee, but an American costume designer.
Q: Did Ruth name the captured panda cub "Su Lin"?
A: Ruth mistook the panda cub as a female, so she named it after the wife of the Chinese accompanying her.
Q: How long did the first live giant panda live after it arrived in the United States?
A: It lived in the United States for just over a year and died in April 1938.
Q: How were giant pandas discovered?
A: When it comes to the "discovery" of the giant panda, the French missionary David must be mentioned. He believes that he discovered this "strange" animal in 1869, which was difficult for the Western world to recognize at that time. Many people think that it is impossible to have such a uniquely "conceptualized" creature in the world. Its huge body is like a bear, but with distinct black and white color; a round white head with two black eye sockets and black ears; black front and rear legs are clearly separated by a white back and belly; almost tailless. To be clear, for Father David's "discovery", a more accurate statement should be that he introduced the magical species of giant panda to the West. The panda was given a scientific name by scientists who were convinced of its existence in 1870 according to the provisions of modern taxonomy. In fact, Chinese people have known about the existence of giant pandas as early as 3,000 years ago in the Western Zhou Dynasty, but they were not called giant pandas at that time, but "Pixiu". Their specific distribution was recorded in China's geographical work called Classic of Mountains and Seas: "Like a bear, black and white beast... lives in the south of Yandao County, Qionglai Mountain". Since there was no systematic classification in ancient China, and there were many common names in various places, giant pandas had a long list of names in Chinese history.
