Yapping about my favorite bears 9

Hi um I'm back, almost forgot to post this heh...anyway today was hectic I spent half of the day in the car but it doesn't matter I got to buy useless stuff that I definitely wont be using after the first time. anyway, our big guy today is...the Qingling panda !!

Qinling Pandas are a subspecies of giant pandas, found exclusively in the Qinling Mountains of Shaanxi Province, central China and they are a geographically isolated branch of giant panda ! As such, only one Qingling pandas is known to have the rare colorations we know of today

What I find particularly fascinating is their genetics. Scientists formally recognized them as a separate subspecies in 2005 after identifying differences in skull shape, molar size, coat markings, and genetics.

The Qinling and Sichuan populations are believed to have diverged approximately 10,000–12,000 years ago, which is why they've grown distinctive traits while remaining the same sub species.

Qingling pandas still retain the original black and white coloration, BUT an exceptionally small number possess the recognizable brown and white fur, thus making them the only known naturally occurring brown pandas in the world.

The most famous example is Qizai !! He is a male brown panda that was discovered as a cub in the Qinling Mountains in 2009, he later became a celebrity in China due to his coloration.

a 2024 genetic study identified a 25 base pair deletion in the BACE2 gene associated with brown and white fur, this essentially means that qinling pandas are not albino as many people mistake them to be. They have a specific genetic difference that is special to them. Qinling pandas also tend to have relatively smaller skulls and larger molars than Sichuan pandas.

Just like all giant pandas, Qinling pandas primarily eat bamboo using their specialized teeth to process large quantities of vegetation, and they generally lead solitary lives outside the breeding season and the period when mothers raise their cubs.

All in all, these guys aren't as different from sihuan pandas (the common species found in sanctuaries.), but they are definitely an interesting bunch, as the only case of brown and white coloration comes from them. It dkes lay a lot of questions regarding the population of this coloration within the group. Unfortunately these bears are pretty skittish and hard to capture wandering around, so it's unlikely that we find another bear of such coloration anytime soon.

× an all white panda, aka albino, for reference :)