Giant Pandas (Ailuropoda melanoleuca) and Green Organic Panda Dung Tea of Sichuan Province in China

Subtleties in appearance and bio-geography account for the recognition of subspecies. The nominate giant panda belongs among the native fauna of Sichuan Province. The Qinling panda contrastingly counts among the animals native to altitudes of 4,265.09 – 9,842.52+ feet (1,300 – 3,000+ meters) above sea level on the Qinling Mountains of Shaanxi Province. The name melanoleuca accurately describes the black-and-white giant panda. It does not do likewise for the Qinling panda. Shaanxi pandas in fact exhibit dark and light brown -- not black and white -- coloration. Mammalogists also find bodies and skulls smaller and molars larger among Qinling pandas. They hypothesize:

• Divergence of 300,000 years ago from the shared species ancestors;

• Mutation in color from inbreeding.

But both subspecies articulate dark-furred ears, eye-patches, limbs, muzzles, and shoulders. Colors camouflage movements through rocky, shade-dappled, snowy habitats. Wool creates warmth in cool forests. Migrations and pelts enable both pandas to:

• Avoid hibernation;

• Exchange cooler elevations for carrion-, grass-, and small bird- and mammal-filled lower slopes;

• Inhabit temporarily hollow trees and rock crevices.

They encourage maturity:

• Physically, with head-and-body lengths of 4 – 6 feet (1.22 – 1.83 meters), shoulder lengths of 2 – 3 feet (60.9 – 91.4 centimeters), tail lengths of 4 – 6 inches (10.16 – 15.24 centimeters), and weights of 165 – 350 pounds (74.84 – 158.76 kilograms);

• Sexually at 4 – 8 years;

• Temporally to 20 – 30 years.

Compatible behaviors and physiques acknowledge giant and Qinling panda similarities. Pandas breed between March and May. After gestating 95 – 181 days, females deliver 1 – 2 blind, pink, toothless, white-furred offspring, each weighing 3.18 – 5.01 ounces (90 – 142 grams). Cubs dominate:

• Dark-patched ears, eyes, limbs, and shoulders in 1 – 4 weeks;

• Sight in 6 – 8 weeks;

• Teething (from baby to permanent) in 14 – 52 weeks;

• Traveling plantigrade (“flat-footed,” turn-toed) in 12 – 16 weeks;

• Tree-climbing in 20 weeks;

• Weaning in 46 – 72 weeks.

They individualize shelters on overlapping home and territorial ranges of 3.09 – 6.95 square miles (8 – 18 square kilometers) each.

Among the critical skills for cubs to fine-tune and grown-ups to maintain are the following:

• Eluding predatory mammals;

• Finding food sources;

• Getting good sleep.

Feeding and sleeping claim 10+ hours each from every 24-hour period. Proper nourishment demands access to bamboo (Bambuseae tribe) and water. Pandas indeed expect to consume 27.56 – 83.78 daily pounds (12.5 – 38 kilograms) worth of the flowering perennial evergreen's stalks. This largely explains:

• The enlarged wrist bones that flank the panda's 5 fingers and that function as opposable thumbs for holding bamboo in place;

• The preferred niches within damp, misty, mixed bamboo, broadleaf, and conifer forests up to 3,937.01 – 11,482.94 feet (1,200 – 3,500 meters) above sea level.

Understanding panda behavior predominantly comes about through captivity-, domestication-, and research-related observations. Pandas devote so much time to eating and sleeping that in the wild they:

• Focus upon their communities and themselves;

• Frighten predators with 42 teeth (6 incisors, 2 canines, 8 premolars, 4 molars per upper jaw; 6 incisors, 2 canines, 8 premolars, 6 molars per lower jaw) and 20 super-sharp claws.

Travel to China therefore guarantees no panda-sightings other than at such locales as the 92-acre (37.23-hectare) Giant Panda Breeding Research Base's grounds and nursery at:

Futou Shan, northern suburb

Chengdu, Sichuan Province 610051.

The center lies respectively 6.84 miles (11 kilometers) and 8.08 miles (13 kilometers) north of downtown Chengdu and Sichuan University.

The Giant Panda Breeding Research Base falls within An Yanshi's ambit from wildlife-related article-writing and lecture-giving -- for Chengdu City residents and Sichuan University students -- to green tea-harvesting in the Qionglai Mountains. The center gets noticed for beautiful habitat, industrious staff, and waste removal. Pandas indeed leave copious droppings because of:

• Behaving like herbivores (“plant-eaters”);

• Digesting like carnivores (“meat-eaters”);

• Sampling fish, insects, kiwi, and small mammals;

• Using just 30% of all ingested foods.

The center problem-solves waste removal by letting panda manure be transported to fertilize tea shrubs on Professor Yanshi's organic farm at Ya'an. Like green tea processed from fresh buds and foliage, fiber-rich panda dung is high in cancer-fighting antioxidants and nutrients.

Professor Yanshi attributes to panda dung fertilizer the fragrant, mature, nutty aromas and tastes produced by processing and serving the spring-picked foliage on his mist-enshrouded farm. Giant pandas and tea shrubs indeed flourish in niches -- such as Ya'an's -- whose environmental configurations monthly average:

• 4.01 inches (101.81 millimeters) in rainfall;

• 43.79°F (6.55°C) in temperatures;

• 29.81 inches (757.25 millimeters) in actual evapo-transpiration.

Recognition of the vulnerability of chemical-riddled environments, deforested habitats, and endangered pandas inspires Professor Yanshi to adopt organic farming methods and channel revenue into environmental activism. The method, the product, and the profits hopefully will improve the well-being of green tea-drinkers and of giant pandas on China's Daxiangling, Liangshan, Minshan, Qinling, and Qionglai Mountains.

My special thanks to talented artists and photographers/concerned organizations who make their fine images available on the internet.

"Men Laden With Tea, Sichuan Sheng, China": 1908 photo by Ernest Henry Wilson (February 15, 1876 – October 15, 1930)
Convergence of tea and pandas occurred in Sichuen Province as center on Ancient Tea Route and as main homeland of Giant Pandas (Ailuropoda melanoleuca).
E.H. Wilson, "Brick Tea for the Tachienlu Market," A Naturalist in Western China (1913), vol. II, opp. p. 92: ralph repo, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons @ https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Men_Laden_With_Tea,_Sichuan_Sheng,_China_1908_Ernest_H._Wilson_RESTORED.jpg

Qinling Panda landscape: Along the freeway Hanzhong-Xi'an crossing Qinling Mountains, a recreational area depicts long history of this road, which joins Shaanxi and Sichuan.
"Small Wall of China": www.sqfp.info, CC BY 2.0, via Flickr @ https://www.flickr.com/photos/shoshot/3950055321/

Giant Panda (Ailuropoda melanoleuca) is only 90-180 grams (3.17 - 6.34 ounces) at birth.
neonatal Giant Panda; about one week old; Chengdu's Giant Panda Breeding Research Base: Colegota and post-processed with The GIMP, CC BY SA 2.5 ES, via Wikimedia Commons @ https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Chengdu-pandas-d18.jpg

Bone of the left forelimb of giant panda (Ailuropoda melanoleuca) named "Fei Fei": Giant panda's wrist bone anatomy, functioning as opposable thumbs, facilitate steady holding of bamboo.
National Museum of Nature and Science, Tokyo, Japan: Momotarou2012, CC BY SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons @ https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Giant_panda_Left_hand_Bone_2.jpg

Giant Panda, seated near bamboo (Bambuseae tribe), at Giant Panda Breeding Research Base
Chengu, central Sichuan Province, southwestern China
Colegota and post-processed with The GIMP, CC BY SA 2.5 ES, via Wikimedia Commons @ http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Chengdu-pandas-d13.jpg

Mother-cub panda sculpture at Giant Panda Breeding Research Base
Chengdu, central Sichuan Province, southwestern China: David Castor (dcastor), Public Domain, via Wikimedia Commons @ https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Chengdu_Panda_base.jpg

Panda sculpture made from panda dung: similar to paper mache and redolent of straw
Panda Research Centre, Chengdu, Sichuan Province, southwestern China: Alpha (avlxyz), CC BY SA 2.0, via Flickr @ https://www.flickr.com/photos/avlxyz/1482988949/

Mingshan District, under administration of prefect-level city Ya'an, is site of first seven tea trees, grown c. 53 BC on Mengding Mountain by Wu Lizhen, a native of the area.
Mengding Mountain tea has been offered to emperors since 742 AD, during the Tang Dynasty (AD 618-907).
Mingshan District, west central Sichuan Province, southwestern China: ROFAD, CC BY 2.0, via Flickr @ https://www.flickr.com/photos/qfzz/14884299722/

pandas and tea: an association prompted perhaps by overlapping bio-geographies in Sichuan Province
oil painting by Scott Gustafson, commissioned by Celestial Seasonings for Green Chamomile tea box
Celestial Seasonings, Boulder, north central Colorado: F Delventhal (krossbow), CC BY 2.0, via Flickr @ https://www.flickr.com/photos/krossbow/3826982728/

ancient, historic radiation of tea outward from Ya'an: Junction of Sichuan and Yunnan branches of Ancient Tea Route occurred hundreds of miles west of Ya'an in eastern Tibet's Markham County, near Sichuan border.
Numbered among seven counties administered by prefecture-level city Ya'an is Baoxing, type locality for Giant Panda.
Markham County, eastern Tibet Autonomous Region: Reurinkjan, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons @ https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Markam_County_Tibet.jpg

"Ailuropoda melanoleuca: Giant Panda." Encyclopedia of Life. Retrieved August 26, 2014.

• Available at: http://eol.org/pages/328070/overview

Bergner, Chris. "Adaptation and Evolution of the Giant Panda." ReoCities. Retrieved August 26, 2014.

• Available at: http://www.reocities.com/rainforest/vines/2695/genetics.html

Bies, LeeAnn. 2002. "Ailuropoda melanoleuca: Giant Panda (On-line)." The Animal Diversity Web. University of Michigan Museum of Zoology. Retrieved August 26, 2014.

• Available at: http://animaldiversity.ummz.umich.edu/site/accounts/information/Ailuropoda_melanoleuca.html

Boelens, Bo; Watkins, Michael; and Grayson, Michael. 2009. The Eponym Dictionary of Mammals. Johns Hopkins University.

Caliendo, Mary. 2014. "Panda Dung Tea." BellaOnline: Tea Site. Retrieved August 26, 2014.

• Available at: http://www.bellaonline.com/articles/art175774.asp

Chan, Royston. 19 March 2012. "Poo for Tea: China's Pandas Brew a Top Drop." Retrieved Reuters. August 26, 2014.

• Available at: http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/03/19/us-china-panda-tea-idUSBRE82I04O20120319

"Chinese Tea Areas." Teavivre. Retrieved August 26, 2014.

• Available at: http://www.teavivre.com/info/chinese-tea-areas/

Chorn, John; and Hoffman, Robert S. 1978. "Ailuropoda melanoleuca." Mammalian Species 110:1-6.

Corbet, G.B.; and Hill, J.E. 1992. The Mammals of the Indomalayan Region: A Systematic Review. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press.

Crienglish.com. 21 June 2014. "Lu'an Gua Pian, Unique Green Tea Promoted at Laoshe Teahouse." Strait to Taiwan. Retrieved August 26, 2014.

• Available at: http://www.strait2taiwan.com/content/lu%E2%80%99-gua-pian-unique-green-tea-promoted-laoshe-teahouse

FAO. 2003. Medium-term Prospects for Agricultural Commodities: Projections to the Year 2010. Rome, Italy: Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations.

Farrier, John. 14 November 2011. "World's Most Expensive Tea Made with Panda Poop." Neatorama: Main Blog. Retrieved August 26, 2014.

• Available at: http://www.neatorama.com/2011/11/14/worlds-most-expensive-tea-made-from-panda-poop/#!bIfA9s

"Giant Panda." Atlanta Fulton County Zoo, Inc.: Animals & Plants > Animals > Mammals. Retrieved August 26, 2014.

• Available at: http://www.zooatlanta.org/home/animals/mammals/giant_panda#rZ5CX

"Giant Panda." San Diego Zoo: Animals > Mammals. Retrieved August 26, 2014.

• Available at: http://animals.sandiegozoo.org/animals/giant-panda

"Giant Panda." World Wildlife Fund: Species. Retrieved August 26, 2014.

• Available at: http://www.worldwildlife.org/species/giant-panda

"Giant Panda." World Wildlife Fund: What We Do > Priority Species. Retrieved August 26, 2014.

• Available at: http://wwf.panda.org/what_we_do/endangered_species/giant_panda/?src=footer

"Giant Panda: Ailuropoda melanoleuca." ARKive: Species > Mammals. Retrieved August 26, 2014.

• Available at: http://www.arkive.org/giant-panda/ailuropoda-melanoleuca/

"Giant Panda: Ailuropoda melanoleuca." National Geographic Society: Animals. Retrieved August 26, 2014.

• Available at: http://animals.nationalgeographic.com/animals/mammals/giant-panda/

"Giant Pandas." Smithsonian National Zoological Park. Retrieved August 26, 2014.

• Available at: http://nationalzoo.si.edu/Animals/GiantPandas/default.cfm

Harris, R. B. 2004. "Insights into Population Dynamics of Giant Pandas Gained from Studies in North America." Acta Zoologica Sinica 50:662-668.

Johnson, K. G.; Schaller, G. B.; and Jinchu, H. 1988. "Responses of Giant Pandas to a Bamboo Die-off." National Geographic Research 4:161-177.

Klappenbach, Laura. "Giant Panda." About.com: Education > Animals / Wildlife. Retrieved August 26, 2014.

• Available at: http://animals.about.com/od/carnivores/p/giantpanda.htm

Lai, Fanny; and Olesen, Bjorn. 26 February 2013. A Visual Celebration of Giant Pandas. Didier Millet.

Lindburg, D.; and Baragona, K. (eds). Giant Pandas: Biology and Conservation. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press.

Loucks, C. J.; Dinerstein, E.; Zhi, L.; Dajun, W.; Dali, F.; and Hao, W. 2003. "The Giant Pandas of the Qinling Mountains, China: A Case Study in Designing Conservation Landscapes for Elevational Migrants." Conservation Biology 17:558-565.

Loucks, C. J., Lü, Z., Dinerstein, E., Wang, H., Olson, D. M., Zhu, C. and Wang, D. 2001. Giant pandas in a changing landscape. Science 294: 1465.

Lu, Z., Johnson, W. E., Menotti-Raymond, M., Yuhk, I N., Martenson, J. S., Mainka, S., Shi-Qiang, H., Zhihe, Z., Li, G., Pan, W., Mao, X. and O'Brien, S.J. 2001. Patterns of genetic diversity in remaining giant panda populations. Conservation Biology 15: 1596-1607.

Lü, Z; Wang, D.; and Garshelis, D.L. 2008. "Ailuropoda melanoleuca." The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. Version 2014.2. Retrieved August 26, 2014.

• Available at: http://www.iucnredlist.org/details/full/712/0

Macht, Daniel. 20 March 2012. "Panda Dung Tea to Hit Market at over $200 a Cup." NBC Bay Area: News. NBC Universal Media, LLC. Retrieved August 26, 2014.

• Available at: http://www.nbcbayarea.com/news/weird/Panda-Dung-Tea-Set-to-Hit-Market-for-Over-200-a-Cup-143364006.html

malayalamchannels. 21 March 2012. "Panda Dung Tea World's Most Expensive at 130 Pounds per Cup." World News Inc. Retrieved August 26, 2014.

• Available at: http://wn.com/panda_dung_tea

Mei Zhang. 23 June 2014. "China Travel Tips: Top 3 Hotels in Chengdu, Sichuan." WildChina Blog. Retrieved August 26, 2014.

• Available at: http://www.wildchina.com/blog/2014/06/china-travel-tips-top-3-hotels-chengdu-sichuan/

Mertz, Leslie Ann. 2004. "Brown Bear: Ursus arctos."  P. 303 in Grzimek's Animal Life Encyclopedia, Second Edition. Volume 14: Mammals III, edited by Michael Hutchins, Devra G. Kleiman, Valerius Geist, and Melissa C. McDade. Farmington Hills, MI: Gale Group, Inc., division of Thomson Learning Inc.

myteabreak. 2 May 2012. "Panda Dung Tea -- The World's Most Expensive Tea." Retrieved August 26, 2014.

• Available at: http://blog.myteabreak.com/2012/05/02/panda-dung-tea-the-worlds-most-expensive-tea/

Naumann, Sara. "The Giant Panda Breeding Research Base in Chengdu." About.com: About Travel > China Travel > Sichuan Province. Retrieved August 26, 2014.

• Available at: http://gochina.about.com/od/chengdu/p/PandaBase.htm

O'Connor, Maureen. 14 November 2011. "World's Most Expensive Tea: Panda Poop." Gawker. Retrieved August 26, 2014.

• Available at: http://gawker.com/5859434/worlds-most-expensive-tea-panda-poop

"Panda Dung Is Secret to Most Expensive Tea." Sky News: Strange News, March 19, 2012. Retrieved August 26, 2014.

• Available at: http://news.sky.com/story/4306/panda-dung-is-secret-to-most-expensive-tea

Press, Simone. 18 November 2011. "The World's Most Expensive Tea: Made from Panda Poo!?" ABC News Blogs: Food > Lifestyle. Retrieved August 26, 2014.

• Available at: http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/lifestyle/2011/11/the-worlds-most-expensive-tea-made-from-panda-poo/

Qiu-Hong Wan; Hua Wu; and Sheng-Guo Fang. 2005. "A New Subspecies Of Giant Panda (Ailuropoda melanoleuca) from Shaanxi, China." Journal of Mammalogy 86:397-402.

Reid, D. G.; Jinchu, H.; Sai, D.; Wei, W.; and Yan, H. 1989. "Giant Panda Ailuropoda melanoleuca Behaviour and Carrying Capacity Following a Bamboo Die-off." Biological Conservation 49:85-104.

Reuters. 19 March 2012 (Updated 19 May 2012). "Panda Dung Tea: Chinese Entrepreneur Uses Bear Excrement for $200-A-Cup Organic Beverage." The Huffington Post. Retrieved August 26, 2014.

• Available at: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/03/19/panda-bear-tea-excrement-china_n_1362078.html

Reuters. 20 March 2012. "Pandas Enlisted to Produce High-priced Tea." Chicago Tribune. Retrieved August 26, 2014. 

• Available at: http://articles.chicagotribune.com/2012-03-20/news/ct-talk-panda-tea-0320-20120320_1_giant-pandas-tea-sichuan

"Tea Name Lists." Teavivre. Retrieved August 26, 2014.

• Available at: http://www.teavivre.com/info/tea-name-lists/

Wilson, Don E.; and Cole, F. Russell. 2000. Common Names of Mammals of the World. Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian Institution Press.

Wilson, Don E.; and Reeder, DeeAnn M. (editors). 2005. Mammal Species of the World: A Taxonomic and Geographic Reference (3rd ed), Johns Hopkins University Press.

Wrobel, Murray (Editor). 2007. Elsevier's Dictionary of Mammals: Latin English German French Italian. Oxford, U.K.: Elsevier B.V.