A rare all-white giant panda was spotted in a natural reserve in China and according to reports, it’s the first time this has happened.
The Sichuan Wolong National Nature Reserve Administration released the first image of the animal which was taken with an infrared trigger camera.
The white-clawed and red-eyed panda is considered to be albino (a condition which causes prevention of melanin) and experts have guessed its age to be around 1-2 years.
There have been sightings of brown and white pandas but the existence of all-white pandas was unknown until now.
In a telephonic interview with The New York Times, Li Sheng, an official from the Species Survival Commission of the International Union for Conservation of Nature said,
I personally think it’s quite random for it to be discovered, since albinism manifests itself so infrequently. This was recorded just in time.
The report also added that officials are now trying to set up more infrared cameras to observe and track down the panda’s movements to determine it’s prospective offspring.
The Chinese government is also responsible for changing the conservation status of pandas from ‘endangered’ to ‘vulnerable’.
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