Giant Panda Tuantuan died in Taiwan, which made many people very sad. However, some people took this opportunity to talk about Western "civilization". Long Yingtai claimed that "the giant panda was discovered by Westerners and brought into the public's vision", and also said that "this fact was selectively forgotten by the xenophobic ' Boxers'." The statement of
is tantamount to claiming that "the first person to discover America was Columbus ", excluding both Indians and Chinese from the category of "humanity".
Since we talk about this topic, let’s list directly a fact: what Westerners call “the earliest discovery of giant pandas” is actually hunting.
In the spring of 1929, an American hunting team named "Kelly Roosevelt Field Museum Expedition Team" came to the southwest area of in China, with the purpose of specializing in hunting giant pandas. Leading the team are Theodore Roosevelt Jr. and Kmitt Roosevelt. Both Americans are the sons of US President Theodore Roosevelt .
Roosevelt 's two sons are famous hunters and explorers, just like their father Roosevelt. The two learned from friends that there is a rare animal of "land white bear" in Sichuan, China. Westerners have never seen a living creature, so they immediately set off for China and expressed their desire to collect specimens of giant pandas.
The two led the team to Lijiang, Yunnan first, then crossed the Jinsha River and entered Sichuan, passing through Jiulong , Kangding , Luding , and entering Ya'an for 3 days. Wandering in the mountains of Ya'an for several months, two Americans hunted several precious golden monkeys on the way, but never encountered giant pandas.
April 13, the hunting team finally found an adult male giant panda in Chaluo Township, Shimian County. After more than two hours of tracking, when the giant panda was resting under an fir tree, Theodore Roosevelt and Kmitt Roosevelt shot at the back of the giant panda at the same time.
After being shot, the giant panda still stubbornly tried to escape into the bamboo forest, but in the end he failed to escape the Americans' pursuit and died at the gun. This is the first time that Westerners have successfully hunted giant pandas.
The hunting team of the Roosevelt brothers conducted a six-month so-called "exploration" in China, collecting more than 2,000 small mammals, birds and reptiles, and 70 large mammal specimens. The most precious one is the giant panda specimen.
In addition to the one they hunted with their own hands, the Roosevelt brothers also purchased a complete giant panda skin from the hunters. Both giant pandas were made into specimens by them and sent to the Field Museum in Chicago for exhibition. To this day, two specimens are still placed in the museum's Asian mammal hall.
After returning to China, the Roosevelt brothers wrote and published a book called "Trailing THE GIANT PANDA", which made his "great achievements" public. The hunting of the Roosevelt brothers was just the beginning. Under the leadership of role models, hunters from the United States and Europe continued to pour into southwestern China.
1936, the Americans caught a giant panda alive for the first time, and they were still an American woman. The person's name is Ruth Harkness (Ruth Harkness), a fashion designer from Manhattan . Her purpose of capturing giant pandas is to fulfill her late husband's "dream". In the end, Hackness successfully captured a live giant panda cub in the mountains of Sichuan and named it "Su Lin".
giant panda "Su Lin" was quickly sent to New York, USA and became the focus of attention of the news media. But just two years later, the young giant panda died of pneumonia .
From 1936 to 1949, Western hunters took 14 living giant pandas from China and sent them to zoos in the United States and Europe. In addition, they also hunted hundreds of giant pandas, made at least 70 giant panda specimens, and sent them to museums in the United States and Europe.
This is the historical truth about the Westerners "the first to bring giant pandas into the public eye." (Author: Tao Mujian)
