Discovery

For two thousand years the giant panda lived in Chinese texts as a half-mythical mountain bear before the West knew it existed. In 1869 the French missionary Armand David obtained a specimen, Western science gave the animal a Latin name, and a wave of explorers set out to hunt, capture, and finally bring one home alive.

Part of The Giant Panda

7 moments in this segment.

1. c. 3rd century BC — The earliest Chinese references. The ancient dictionary Erya records the mo (貘), a black-and-white bear-like beast of the mountains, traditionally identified with the giant panda. For two millennia the animal lives in Chinese texts as a half-mythical creature — a tribute beast, a symbol of peace — long before the outside world knows it exists.
2. 1869-03-23 — Père Armand David obtains the first specimen. 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.
3. 1870 — Ailuropoda melanoleuca gets its name. The zoologist Alphonse Milne-Edwards examines David's specimen and concludes it is not a bear but a relative of the red panda and the raccoons, coining the genus name Ailuropoda — "cat-foot." The giant panda is formally Ailuropoda melanoleuca: the black-and-white cat-foot.
4. 1870 — Watch — how the West discovered the panda. The story of Père Armand David and the 19th-century race to find, name, and capture the mysterious black-and-white bear of the Sichuan mountains.
5. 1928 — The Roosevelt brothers shoot a panda. Kermit and Theodore Roosevelt Jr., sons of the president, become the first Westerners known to shoot a giant panda, on the Kelley-Roosevelts Expedition in the mountains of Sichuan. Their account, Trailing the Giant Panda, turns the animal into a legendary big-game trophy and sets off a rush of collecting expeditions.
6. 1934-07-01 — Su Lin goes on show at Brookfield Zoo. In 1937 Brookfield Zoo near Chicago acquires Su Lin, and crowds pour in to see the first giant panda on public display anywhere outside China. "Panda-monium" enters the language; the animal's career as the world's most adored zoo creature begins.
7. 1936 — Ruth Harkness brings out the first live panda. The American dress designer Ruth Harkness, completing her late husband's expedition, carries a tiny living cub — Su Lin — out of China in a wicker basket and into the United States. It is the first live giant panda the West has ever seen, and a global sensation.