Some Obscurish facts
#1580
The native Chinese name for the Giant Panda, Da xiong mao, means 'great bear cat.' Chinese books written over two thousand years ago endow the giant panda with mystical powers capable of warding off natural disasters and evil spirits. The ancient Chinese emperors kept giant pandas as pets. The giant panda remained unknown to Westerners until 1869 when native hunters brought French missionary Armand David a dead specimen. He sent the pelt back to the Museum of Natural History in Paris. German zoologist Hugo Weigold was the first Westerner to observe a live giant panda in the wild. In 1929 Theodore and Kermit Roosevelt (sons of former U. S. President Theodore Roosevelt) became the first Westerners to hunt and kill a giant panda. It was not until 1937 that Ruth Harkness and Gerald Russell captured a live giant panda for the first time. It took sixty-seven years from the time of the giant panda's discovery by Westerners until its live capture. During this period twelve well staffed and equipped professional expeditions failed to collect a single live specimen of the giant panda. The scientific name for the giant panda, Ailuropoda melanoleuca, means 'black and white bear.' Scientists debated for decades whether the giant panda was in fact a bear or was instead more closely related to the lesser panda and racoon. In the late 1980s DNA testing confirmed that the giant panda was a bear. Unlike other bears, the giant panda subsists almost entirely on a vegetarian diet of bamboo. An individual panda spends up to fourteen hours each day eating twelve to fourteen kilos of bamboo. The giant panda is an endangered animal. Only about one thousand individuals remain alive in the wild. All of these inhabit a small region in the bamboo forests of southwestern China.
The native Chinese name for the Giant Panda, Da xiong mao, means 'great bear cat.' Chinese books written over two thousand years ago endow the giant panda with mystical powers capable of warding off natural disasters and evil spirits. The ancient Chinese emperors kept giant pandas as pets. The giant panda remained unknown to Westerners until 1869 when native hunters brought French missionary Armand David a dead specimen. He sent the pelt back to the Museum of Natural History in Paris. German zoologist Hugo Weigold was the first Westerner to observe a live giant panda in the wild. In 1929 Theodore and Kermit Roosevelt (sons of former U. S. President Theodore Roosevelt) became the first Westerners to hunt and kill a giant panda. It was not until 1937 that Ruth Harkness and Gerald Russell captured a live giant panda for the first time. It took sixty-seven years from the time of the giant panda's discovery by Westerners until its live capture. During this period twelve well staffed and equipped professional expeditions failed to collect a single live specimen of the giant panda. The scientific name for the giant panda, Ailuropoda melanoleuca, means 'black and white bear.' Scientists debated for decades whether the giant panda was in fact a bear or was instead more closely related to the lesser panda and racoon. In the late 1980s DNA testing confirmed that the giant panda was a bear. Unlike other bears, the giant panda subsists almost entirely on a vegetarian diet of bamboo. An individual panda spends up to fourteen hours each day eating twelve to fourteen kilos of bamboo. The giant panda is an endangered animal. Only about one thousand individuals remain alive in the wild. All of these inhabit a small region in the bamboo forests of southwestern China.