Despite his beautiful and unique outer coat, Qizai the brown panda was living a painful life. Abandoned as a cub. Qizai had no one in his life to love and care for him. Surprisingly enough, Qizai has managed to continue living his life and you won’t believe how different his life is now.
20. Abandoned
Image: Bored Panda
When he was only two-months-old, Qizai was discovered all alone n the nature reserve of China’s Qingling Mountains. Qizai had been abandoned by his mother and was finding it difficult to survive all alone. Rescuers realized this and quickly brought him to the Shaanxi Rare Wildlife Rescue.
19. Named
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While at the wildlife rescue, Qizai received his new name, which actually means “the seventh son.” At the rescue center, Qizai was taken care of through regular bottle feedings from the nursing panda mother at the sanctuary.
18. Weakest Link
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Despite having a brand new life at the sanctuary, Qizai’s troubles weren’t over yet. Qizai had a hard time relating to the other pandas at the sanctuary as they often bullied and took advantage of him, assuming that he was weak.
17. Slow Eater
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“He eats more slowly than the others,” panda keeper He Xin said of Qizai. Due to this, many of the pandas that he shared quarters with who run off with his food before he would even have a chance to eat.
16. Different Panda
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It began to become apparent that Qizai wasn’t meant to fit in with the other pandas – and rightfully so. You see, Qizai is a rare breed of Qinling Mountain panda. This breed is a sub-species of the giant panda and unlike other pandas they have a brown and white coat color.
15. Research
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Qizai’s rare coat color is a huge mystery to scientists everywhere. Many believe that it may be the result of a genetic mutation and now that Qizai is of mating age, scientists hope to better study how the color passes down but this is where the tricky part comes in…
14. Tricky Situation
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It won’t be easy finding Qizai a partner to breed with and it’s all because brown panda’s are so rare! There have only been five documented sightings of brown panda bears in the last 30 years. This is a serious issue for experts…
13. Sightings
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Many of the brown panda sightings have occurred in the Qinling Mountains.“The Qinling Mountain pandas are considered a different sub-species from those found in other mountain ranges,” vet and conservation photographer Katherine Feng explained.
12. Further Explanation
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“It is suspected that the brown and white coloring of pandas has a genetic basis, possible a result of a double recessive gene, a combination of genes or a dilution factor gene,” Feng explained. The color is so rare that even Qizai’s mom had a black and white coat.
11. Different Versions
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There are still various versions of this mutation. “The pandas in Shaanxi have lighter fur color than the Sichuan pandas,” the panda keep explained. “Some of them have dark brown fur around the stomach. But Qizai is the most brown panda of them all.”
Now they’re preparing Qizai to mate…
10. Moving
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Since Qizai will have to mate soon, he has been moved to Foping Panda Valley. There he met He, the man who has dedicated his life to keeping Qizai happy and comfortable so that he can breed in the best conditions.
9. Schedule
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He is very dedicated to the care of Qizai. You’ll find He awake at 6 in the morning to feed Qizai and then he stays around until midnight, when he finally puts Qizai to sleep. The job has a lot of responsibilities but He sees it as a pleasure.
8. Unique Bond
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While He has spent a lot of time with all of the other pandas, Qizai holds a special place in his heart. He finds Qizai to be the cutest out of all of the pandas and adores his brown and white coat that makes him stand out so much.
7. Cuter
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“He is slower than the other pandas, but he is also cuter,” He said about Qizai. He also described Qizai as a “gentle, funny and adorable animal.” It is true that He might just have a favorite amongst the pandas.
6. Slow Bear
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Still, Qizai continues to showcase his love for taking life at a slower pace than the rest of the bears. “All pandas here have names. When I call out their names, the other black-and-white pandas would react and come to me quickly, but for Qizai, it usually takes sometime [for] him to realize that,” He said.
5. Separated
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Since he is so much slower and less aggressive than the other bears, Qizai is kept in a separate area. In his special enclosure, Qizai is able to eat as much as he’d like without worrying about his food being stolen. Thanks to this Qizai has put on quite some weight…
4. Big Bear
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Thanks to his recent seclusion, Qizai has been able to eat in peace and put on some pretty healthy weight. He is now 220 pounds and eats around 44 pounds of bamboo on a daily basis! Talk about having a healthy appetite.
3. Bright Future
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In the meantime, researchers are continuing to look for the perfect breeding mate for Qizai. They hope to find one quite soon and are excited to see how the genetic mutation will show up in Qizai’s offspring. Qizai is pretty excited too…
2. No Longer Endangered
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Thanks to new poaching law, the panda is no longer an endangered animal. More efforts have gone into preserving the panda’s natural habitat and the iconic bear is actually increasing in population size.
“Knowing that the panda is now a step further from extinction is an exciting moment for everyone,” said WWF Director General Marco Lambertini.
1. Qizai’s Purpose
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With the panda population continuing to increase, there is even more hope of finding the perfect mate for Qizai. Once the two meet, Qizai will be a necessary part in increasing the panda population even more!