There is a world somewhere between reality and fiction. Although ignored by many, it is very real and so are those living in it. This forum is about the natural world. Here, wild animals will be heard and respected. The forum offers a glimpse into an unknown world as well as a room with a view on the present and the future. Anyone able to speak on behalf of those living in the emerald forest and the deep blue sea is invited to join.
Are Pandas True Bears Or Are They Raccoons?
October 13, 1985|By Jan Ziegler. United Press International.
WASHINGTON — A bear is a bear is a bear is a bear. Unless it`s a panda.
It may never have crossed your mind that Ling-Ling and Hsing-Hsing, the famous giant pandas that charm visitors at the National Zoo, may be members of the raccoon family. But it has been an issue among scientists for more than a century.
The question is whether giant pandas should belong to either of the families, or if they should have a family of their own in the vast system of scientific classification that has a label for just about every animal in the world.
Giant pandas, according Stephen J. O`Brien, a research associate at the zoo, have been grouped with bears since their discovery by the Western world in the 1860s.
However, they have un-bearlike characteristics. Giant pandas are vegetarian, consuming mostly bamboo. Their forequarters are huge, rear quarters relatively small. In bears, although some have huge forequarters, rears are generally not as reduced.
``Finally, the giant panda does not behave like a bear,`` O`Brien and colleagues wrote in the scientific journal Nature. ``Most bears hibernate, the giant panda does not; bears roar, whereas the giant panda bleats.``
The raccoon faction has argued that because of its skull and tooth structure, markings and other characteristics, the giant panda belongs in the same family from which raccoons and the lesser or red panda, which really does look like a raccoon, diverged millions of years ago.
To put the matter to rest, the National Zoo researchers called on the powers of genetic technology. They took some cell samples from a raccoon, a giant panda, a lesser panda and a trio of Bruins: one American brown bear, a spectacled bear and a Maylayan sun bear.
Running the samples through three molecular tests that would reveal gene structure, they found the genetic similarities between bears and giant pandas far exceeded the number and extent of differences.
On the family tree, the bear group and procyonid group, to which the lesser panda belongs, probably split from a single ancestor line about 30 million to 50 million years ago.
The procyonids split into New World procyonids--represented by raccoons, coatis and kinkajous--and Old World procyonids, the aforementioned lesser pandas, 10 million years later.
Giant pandas branched off the bear family tree 15 to 25 million years ago. Judging by the molecular tests, they should be considered a sub-group of the bear family.
The ideosyncracies of giant pandas probably are the result of evolution and ancestral characteristics lost by bears after they split from the main line, the researchers wrote.
Panda Bear
