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Name : Qinling panda ( Ailuropoda melanoleuca qinlingensis )
Where it inhabit : Qinling Mountains in the Shaanxi province , China
A brown Qinling panda at a science park in China.
What it consume : Bamboo
Why it ’s awesome : When we consider of cat bear , we tend to picture the illustrious bears in black and white — but not all pandas are so pitch-black and white .
A race of giant pandas call in Qinling red panda can sometimes be a mixing of dark and light brown . These brown pandas are so uncommon , only a dozen or so have ever been document .
Brown Qinling pandas sometimes have brown fur as a result of a missing sequence in their DNA.
The first formally recorded chocolate-brown Qinling panda — a female person named Dandan — wasfound in 1985 in Foping County in Shaanxi state by a local Texas Ranger and take to Qinling Wildlife Zoo . She remained in captivity until her destruction in 2000 .
Qinling coon bear were officiallyrecognized as a subspecies in 2005 . Their habitat , diet and behavior are very similar to giant pandas . However , Qinling pandas are more or less smaller . They also have brown heart spots underneath their middle , whereas giant Ailuropoda melanoleuca have patches around their eyes .
Researchsuggests Qinling pandas may have genetically separate from elephantine pandas from the Sichuan region around 300,000 years ago . And while most Qinling pandas are black and white , scientist were baffled as to why some of the subspecies have brown fur .
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But in 2024 , scientist publish a written report inPNASrevealing brownish Qinling pandas exist thanks to a genetical quirk .
The team sequenced the genome of a enwrapped dark-brown bear cat known as Qi Zai , who was captured in the natural state in 2009 and taken to Foping Nature Reserve in Shaanxi , along with his mother . In total , they sequenced the genomes of 35 giant pandas , include two brown ones .
They discovered that brown pandas get their unusual colouring because of a missing succession in their DNA . Specifically , Qinling pandas have a genetic mutation in a factor called Bace2 , which is related to pigmentation . Further trial run on another 192 smutty - and - white pandas prove none had this version of Bace2 .
Interestingly , although Qi Zai is brownish , his female parent is black and bloodless . The researchers believe this is because Qinling bear cat have a prevalent factor for bleak - and - lily-white coloration and a recessive cistron for brown - and - light - brown colors . For a dark-brown Qinling lesser panda to be born , both parent — who can be shameful - and - white — must conduct the recessionary " brown " gene .
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However , there is a very low-down probability that both parent will have the recessive gene for Brown University - and - light - browned coloration , which is why brown Qinling pandas are so rare .
Additionally , the scientists analyzed preserved tissue from Dandan and reason out she had the same recessive trait as Qi Zai . The pretermit sequence represent a major breakthrough in genetics , as it was the first time thatan absent inherited segment has been linked to a change in color .
Qinling pandas ' brown pelt is likely the result of inbreeding . The universe lives exclusively in the hilly neighborhood the subspecies is named after and is genetically isolate , which has activate the browned coloring variance to persist .
