Friends of Giant Pandas

Valuable neighbors of the giant panda including snub-nosed monkey, takin, red panda and Elaphodus cephalophus, to name a few, are for the most part co-existing with the giant panda. From the perspectives of the origins of nature and history, they all belong to progenitors from a million years or more ago. They share the common negative experience of being encroached up and seriously tested by glaciers and fortunately survived until now thanks to the advantageous terrain of tall hills and deep valleys in Southwest China. Through long-term co-existence and food as their bonds, they have established a comparatively stable ecosystem in the same area with their own spaces, divisions in sustenance, and coordination in daily activities and seasonal difference.

Snub-nosed monkey

The snub-nosed monkey is yellow and lives in the trees. In 1869, Father Armand David from France discovered the giant panda and later, in 1870, spotted the snub-nosed monkey. The snub-nosed monkey was named by the curator of the Muséum National d'Histoire Naturelle after a famous and beautiful Russian. Although equipped with an upturned nostril, this gorgeous blonde is still accepted as the most beautiful monkey in the world. With a blue face, long tail, and golden long-furred back, in China, it has been regarded as a treasure by dynasties, and only senior officials were allowed to take their fur as a coat. Like giant pandas, such monkeys only live in China. In the panda garden, the snub-nosed monkeys primarily live in lush tree crowns and feed on tree buds, tender leaves, hanging adnascent Usnea diffracta Vain., epiphytic bulk lichen on bark, etc. They are reliant on their eyes. In a group of monkeys, there are often several males that whistle. In event of suspicious conditions, an alarm will sound, and the monkeys will immediately fall silent, providing a warning to the pandas with poor eyesight.

Takin

The takin, also called Niuling (wildebeest), Niujiaoling, or bison in western Sichuan, is a traveler among forests and bush fallows as well as on marshy grasslands. The famous American zoologist Schaller called it “One Alike Six Animals”. Takins are only homed in the Himalayas to the Hengduan Mountains in southwestern China and is another world-famous animal. They gather together in large herds in winter, grazing on buds, leaves, barks from a variety of shrub plants, and grasses. In winter, they forage for withered bamboo leaves rejected by pandas.

Tufted deer

Tufted deer, the gentle creature grazing on grass in dense forests and bamboo groves, called black deer by local villagers, is a precious animal that lives only in China.

Red panda

As the intimate fellows of giant pandas, red pandas also live off of bamboo but have a tacit understanding to share with their giant cousins. Giant pandas love bamboo leaves in autumn when red pandas forage for wild cherries, Sorbus pohuashanensis, and many other wild fruits. Giant pandas prefer large bamboo shoots in spring and summer, while red pandas search out little bamboo shoots rejected by giant pandas. Giant pandas mostly take the upper branches and leaves of the bamboo while red pandas eat those at the lower part. Giant pandas forage on gentle and shady slopes while red pandas forage on steep and sunny slopes.