Class: MAMMALIA

Order: CARNIVORA

Family: URSIDAE

Genus: AILURPODA

Species: MELANOLEUCA

About 600 or so Giant Pandas live in captivity worldwide. This is a male, part of a pair that lives, at time of writing, in Edinburgh, Scotland. In 2023, after an extended loan, he, and his mate, will have to return to their Chinese homeland.

An average-sized bear, native to three provinces of mountainous China. Giant Pandas once lived in lowland habitat, but construction in the lowlands has forced panda populations to stay upwards. The Giant Panda is unique in that, as compared to the seven other species of Bear, the Giant Panda does not belong to the sub-family of Ursinae, going on a different evolutionary path. In fact, it was disputed for years whether the Giant Panda is more closely related to raccoons and red pandas, or to the true bears. Contenders for an origin closer to raccoons argue that the red panda grips and eats bamboo in a similar way, but contenders for a more ursine-related origin point out that this could simply be a result of convergent evolution, and that the giant panda is built especially like a bear. Today, the giant panda is typically regarded as one of eight species of true bear. It is also perhaps the oldest of the bears, appearing some 20 million years ago. The Qinling Panda, the only sub-species of the Giant Panda, has a brown coat, as opposed to a black-and-white one. The Qinling Panda is far rarer than a typical-coloured Giant Panda.