Episode 1 of 2

Receipt of Giant Panda Skin

When: 1869
Where: Baoxing, China
Part of: Père Armand David receives giant panda skin and describes Davidia

David received a giant panda skin from a hunter in Baoxing, marking the first Western encounter with the species.

In 1869, Armand David received the skin of a giant panda from a hunter in Baoxing, China. This was the first time the species became known to a Westerner. The giant panda is a bear species endemic to China, and this discovery was among the most notable animals David found that were previously unknown to Europeans.

Sources

Armand David Wikipedia, revision of 2026-07-01
Giant panda Wikipedia, revision of 2026-10-01

Machine-drafted from the cited Wikipedia passages and checked by a reviewing model, not by a human editor. Every passage cites the revision it was written from; dates and places follow those passages.