Rare albino panda spotted in China’s Wolong National Nature Reserve (video)
On Saturday, an infrared camera at the Wolong National Nature Reserve in China’s southwestern Sichuan province captured footage of an all-white giant panda approaching another panda and her cub. The footage, taken in late February, shows the rare albino panda interacting with the panda pair.
The video reveals that the all-white panda walked straight toward the resting panda mother and child in a tree hollow, seemingly attempting to establish a connection. However, the mother panda remained in the tree hollow, maintaining a calm demeanour. Once the panda pair left the tree hollow, the all-white panda returned and sniffed the area that the mother had occupied.
According to Wei Rongping, a senior engineer at the China Conservation and Research Centre for the Giant Panda, the cub in the video appeared to be between one and two years old, while the all-white panda had a body size near that of a fully grown panda. Wei said…
“At the end of February, wild pandas in Wolong enter their mating season, and mother pandas with cubs may become very aggressive if approached or invaded by adult pandas.”
Wei also noted that the mother panda’s unusually “calm and quiet” behaviour suggested a possibility that she could be the mother of the all-white panda.
The Wolong National Nature Reserve management agency reported the discovery of 15 new video clips that captured the three pandas overlapping their movements within a short period. In April 2019, an infrared camera had previously captured images of the unique all-white panda at an altitude of approximately 2,000 meters.
The all-white panda, lacking any body spots and possessing red eyes, is classified as an albino panda, which is estimated to be the only one of its kind on Earth.
In related panda news, post-mortem examinations ruled that Thailand‘s beloved giant panda Lin Hui, who passed away at 21 years old at Chiang Mai Zoo last month, died of multiple organ failure.
China loaned the giant panda to Thailand in 2003 as a goodwill ambassador between the two countries for 20 years. She was set to return home this year. For more on this story click HERE.
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