World's first and only all-white panda captured in China's Wolong Nature Reserve
The panda was earlier captured 2,000 meters above the sea level in the reserve in 2019, when it was just a cub.
A video of the world's first and only all-white panda was released by the Wolong National Nature Reserve in China’s Sichuan province. In the video, captured by an infrared camera, the white panda was seen approaching a black and white mother panda and her cub.
The panda was earlier captured 2,000 metres above the sea level in the reserve in 2019, when it was just a cub.
The video, which was released by the Nature Reserve, showed the white panda walking over to a mother and her cub, who were resting in a tree hollow. After the mother did not leave the hollow, the white panda wandered off. However, it returned to the spot and sniffed around.
A senior engineer at the China Conservation and Research Centre for Giant Pandas, Wei Rongping, told Singapore-based media organisation The Straits Times, “The cub in the footage is about one to two years old, and the all-white panda is nearly the size of an adult. At the end of February, wild pandas in Wolong have entered the oestrus season, during which the female pandas with cubs can be very aggressive when an adult panda approaches or invades. This female panda was extremely ‘calm’ and did not conform to the general rule. One possibility is that the female panda is the mother of the all-white panda.”
All-white panda was declared albino
Having no spots on its body and red eyes, the all-white panda was declared an albino – one of its kind in the world – after it was first spotted in 2019.
A researcher at the Peking University Li Sheng told Chinese television network CGTN, “There is another rare colour variation of the giant panda in the northern Qinling Mountains, where the giant panda is distributed. It is a brown-and-white colour variation. A very rare all-white panda was recorded at Wolong, and this may be due to a genetic mutation. This individual may have been the first wild all-white giant panda recorded since the official documentation began.”
He added, “However, it is unclear if its unique genetic traits will spread within the small population and ever be stably inherited. Further research is required to completely understand the implications of this discovery for the genetics and conservation of giant pandas.”
