Père Armand David obtains the first specimen

MAR 23 1869 · 12:00

In March 1869, the French Lazarist missionary and naturalist Armand David acquires the skin of a "black-and-white bear" from hunters in the mountains of Sichuan. He sends it to the Muséum national d'Histoire naturelle in Paris — the moment the giant panda enters Western science.