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Wild Giant Panda

Ailuropoda melanoleuca qinlingensis

Photo by Dan Doucette
Published on Project Noah
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Field Notes

Description:

I had to put 'wild' in the title to distinguish it from all other Giant Panda spotting that are of captive animals. It's not a great photo but this is the best I could do. Giant Pandas are extremely difficult to see in the wild and after tracking them for 5 days, these were the best photos I got.

Habitat:

The giant panda lives in a few mountain ranges in central China, mainly in Sichuan province, but also in the Shaanxi and Gansu provinces. This is the subspecies in Shaanxi province.

Notes:

I spent 10 days in Foping Reserve in the Qinling Mountains near the city of Xian. We tracked pandas 5 different days while I was there. We only spotted them 2 times in the 5 days and they were always in dense bamboo. Even though my photos aren't as clear as I hoped, I'm still super happy that I got to see such a rare animal in its native habitat.

Species ID Suggestions

Comments (8)

Thank you Stian and thanks for appreciating and commenting.
Thanks a lot! @achammad, your welcome and thank you too, this was really something special to see in the wild.
And your spotting is expensive! thanks for sharing this and congrats you've found that one in the wild!
Photographed
PublishedMarch 24, 2012

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