Did You Know? The History of Pandas: Part 1

Yesterday I was reading a book from the Base and I learned many interesting stories about Pandas. I thought it will be a nice topic to write about, so here is the first story of many: “The Panda and the fashion designer”:

Do you know who was the first person to take an alive panda out of China? Her name was Ruth Harkness and she was neither a biologist nor a zoologist. In fact, she had nothing to do with science, she was a fashion designer (her husband was the explorer). In 1936, she went to China and found a guide, Quenting Young, to take her through a bandit territory and into the Sichuan mountains. They were able to capture a 9 week old Panda in an area close to the Min River, in Sichuan. Even thought the baby was a male, Ruth thought it was a female and she named him “Su Lin”, meaning “a little bit of something precious”. 

As soon as Ruth got the Panda, she headed back to Chengdu and immediately flew to Shangai. There, the Chinese customs officials confiscated Su Lin, and she had to stay with him all night. With the help of friends and a bribery of 2 US dollars, she was able to register the Panda as a “Pekinese dog” and go back to America. On Christmas day 1936 Ruth arrived with Su Lin wrapped in her arms at San Francisco. A few months after Su Lin was sold to the Chicago’s Brookfield zoo and became the first live panda to be displayed in the United States. Sadly, Su Lin was only able to live in San Francisco for about two years. He died in April 1938. Today his body is on display at the field museum in Chicago. However, Su Lin marked the beginning of an extensive series of pandas being taken abroad from China.