When it comes to the history of giant pandas, it can be said that it has a long history. The fossils of the oldest member of the giant panda discovered so far - the first panda - were unearthed in Lufeng and Yuanmou, Yunnan, China, with a geological age of approximately 8 million years ago in the late Miocene. In the long and harsh competition for survival and natural selection, many animals of their time have become extinct, but giant pandas are strong and have an advantage, becoming "living fossils" preserved to this day.
Chinese people have a long history of understanding pandas, and various terms for pandas have been recorded as early as the early stages of writing. The Book of Books refers to Pi, the Mao Poetry refers to Bai Bo (p), the Emei Mountain Annals refers to Pi Xiu, the Beast Classic refers to raccoon dogs, Li Shizhen's Compendium of Materia Medica refers to tapir, and so on.
In March 1869, French naturalist Father Armand David (1826.9.7-190011.10) discovered traces of what locals call white bears and flower bears during a scientific expedition near the Dengchigou (Muping) church in Baoxing County, Ya'an, Sichuan. With the help of local hunters, on April 1st, he collected a specimen of a white bear, with black and white fur and hairy feet, resembling a bear. This is a strange animal he has never seen before. He transported the specimens and bones to France, and after being identified by scientist Alfonse Mille Edwards of the Paris Museum of Natural History, the "black and white bear" was a new species named "feline bear". The identification report was published in the fifth volume of the "New Documents of the Paris Museum of Natural History" in 1869, and from then on, the feline bear, which had been hiding in the wilderness, entered the field of human civilization.
Edit by Chuan-X Panda 2023-11-05 chuanxpanda.com