THE world’s only known all-white panda has been captured on infrared cameras in the Wolong National Nature Reserve in Southwest China’s Sichuan Province, the reserve management authorities said Saturday. In the footage recorded in late February, the all-white panda walked towards a black-and-white mother panda and a baby panda resting in a tree hollow and signaled to interact. However, the mother panda didn’t leave the hollow and kept calm. After the mother and the cub left the hollow, the all-white panda came back to the tree hollow and sniffed every place where the mother panda stayed. “The cub in the footage is about 1-2 years old, and the all-white panda is nearly the size of an adult. In late February, wild pandas in Wolong have entered the estrus season, during which the female pandas with cubs can be very aggressive when an adult panda approaches or invades,” said Wei Rongping, a senior engineer at the China Conservation and Research Center for Giant Pandas. “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,” Wei added. There are also another 15 video recordings of the three pandas in a short period, according to the reserve management authorities. The distinctive creature burst into sight after infrared cameras captured its figure about 2,300 meters above sea level in the Wolong National Nature Reserve in April 2019. With no spots on its body and unique red eyes, the wild giant panda was concluded to be an albino, hitherto the only one of its kind anywhere on Earth. “Presently, it seems that the white giant panda is just an individual one. So far, we can tell that the white panda is doing very well in its species group and in the natural environment,” said Li Sheng, a researcher at Peking University. Researchers discovered that the white panda has reached sexual maturity and has exhibited normal courtship behaviors. The staff members at the nature reserve are attempting to collect DNA samples from the white panda to learn more about this rare creature. “By means of the current investigation, experiments and tests, we are trying to find out whether there are other white pandas in this area and what is their status quo,” said He Tingmei, deputy managing director of the nature reserve. The Wolong National Nature Reserve, situated 130 kilometers from Chengdu, the capital of Sichuan Province, is the core of the Sichuan Giant Panda Sanctuaries, one of China’s World Natural Heritages. The reserve is the country’s largest and most renowned panda reserve. It was added to the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization’s Man and Biosphere Reserve Network in 1980. (Xinhua, CGTN) | 