Rare Albino Giant Panda Seen In China's Wolong Nature Reserve

JAKARTA - A rare albino giant panda - believed to be the only of its kind - has been seen again in the wild in southwest China.

The camera footage from this completely white animal was released by Wolong National Nature Reserve in Sichuan Province, according to a CCTV state television station report on Saturday last week.

The Panda is believed to be around five or six years old, and does not appear to be suffering from any health problems, the report said.

This distinctive animal was first spotted by a nature reserve camera in April 2019, at an altitude of about 2,000 meters above sea level.

The nature reserve released the first image of the animal in May that year, which showed white fur and claw and red eye.

The nature reserve authorities have since formed a special team to monitor the panda, according to CCTV. The researchers studied the bear's possible routine, and installed and adjusted the activated camera to the movement to capture its movement.

The new footage also shows that this all-white animal interacts with several other black-and-white giant pandas at an altitude of about 2,600 meters above sea level, according to a report from the state-run People's Daily media.

"This is the first albino giant panda recorded in the wild," said Li Sheng, a researcher at the University of Peaking's biological science school, as quoted in a CCTV report.

"It is still unclear whether the gene will be passed on and passed on to a small panda population, and further research is needed," he explained, citing CNA May 29.

Previously, China also discovered 10 rare brown panda giants in the wild between 1985 and 2021, according to state media.

Among them is a male panda named Qizai, which was first spotted in November 2009 at the Foping National Nature Reserve in Shaanxi Province, northwest of China.

Qizai was about two months old when he was found and has since lived in the captivity of the Shaanxi panda breeding research center.

The first brown panda found was a female panda named Dandan, which was discovered in 1985. She was married to an ordinary black-and-white giant panda and gave birth to three cubs all black-and-white. Dandan died of cancer in 2000.

It is known that giant pandas are native Chinese animals and mostly live in the mountains of Sichuan, Shaanxi and Gansu Provinces. Reports of Chinese biodiversity in 2021 state that there are about 1,860 giant pandas in the wild.