Qi Zai
 Qi Zai in November 2015 | |
| Species | Qinling panda |
|---|---|
| Sex | Male |
| Born | c. 2009 Qinling, Shaanxi, China |
| Known for | World's only known living brown-and-white giant panda in captivity |
| Residence | Foping Panda Valley (Qinling Giant Panda Research Center), Shaanxi, China |
| Parent | Unknown |
| Offspring | Rong Rong (荣荣) (2022) |
Qi Zai (Chinese: 七仔; pinyin: Qī Zǎi; lit. 'The Seventh Son'; born c. 2009) is a male brown-and-white giant panda and the only known brown giant panda living in captivity. He belongs to the Qinling panda population, native to the Qinling Mountains of Shaanxi, China. His unusual brown fur, which replaces the typical black markings found on giant and Qinling pandas, is due to a genetic mutation.
Early life and rescue
[edit]Qi Zai was born around 2009 in the wild in the Qinling Mountains. On 1 November 2009, he was found weak, dehydrated and abandoned in the Foping National Nature Reserve and taken in for emergency care. He was estimated to be about two months old, and believed to have been abandoned by his mother.[1] Keepers named him after the creature in the film CJ7, which he was thought to resemble.[2][3]
Because of Qi Zai's unusual brown-and-white coloration, rescuers were initially unsure of his identity, but specialists later confirmed that he was a rare brown giant panda,[1] which have been spotted in the Qinling Mountains five times from 1985 to 2015.[4] He became the second brown giant panda known to be kept in captivity after the female panda Dandan.[5]
Captivity
[edit]After his rescue, Qi Zai was taken to the Shaanxi Rare Wild Animal Rescue and Breeding Research Center, since renamed the Qinling Giant Panda Research Center, in Xi'an, Shaanxi, where he has been kept since.[2][3] As of January 2026[update], Qi Zai weighed about 120 kilograms (260 lb) and remained at the centre, where he is the main visitor attraction.[2][6]
Breeding
[edit]In 2020, Qi Zai successfully completed natural mating with a female panda named An An, marking the first successful natural mating recorded for the world's only captive brown panda. Researchers expressed interest in whether his rare brown coloration, believed to be linked to uncommon genetic traits, could be passed to future offspring.[7] In 2022, Qi Zai fathered a cub, Rong Rong.[8]
Coloration and genetics
[edit]Qi Zai belongs to the Qinling panda, a subspecies of giant panda native to the Qinling Mountains of Shaanxi. The subspecies was recognized as distinct until 30 June 2005.[9][10] Researchers believe it diverged from other giant panda populations around 300,000 years ago.[11]
Most Qinling pandas are black and white, and brown-and-white individuals such as Qi Zai are rare. Every scientifically recorded case has occurred within the Qinling range.[3] Wild brown pandas had been recorded eleven times in the Qinling Mountains as of 2024, most recently in January of that year in the Changqing National Nature Reserve.[12]
The genetic basis of Qi Zai's coloration was reported in 2024 by a team led by Wei Fuwen and Hu Yibo of the Institute of Zoology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.[13][5] Sequencing Qi Zai's genome alongside those of other brown and black-and-white pandas, the researchers identified a homozygous 25-base-pair deletion in the Bace2 gene as the most likely cause of the brown-and-white coat.[13] The team confirmed the effect with a CRISPR-Cas9 knockout mouse model, in which mice carrying the mutation developed lighter fur.[5] The coloration follows an autosomal recessive pattern of inheritance, and none of Qi Zai's offspring has inherited it.[2]
References
[edit]- 1 2 "Brown is unique". China Daily. 16 October 2013. Retrieved 18 July 2026.
- 1 2 3 4 "棕色大熊猫'七仔'享受冬日时光" [Brown giant panda Qizai is enjoying the winter.]. Shangguan News (in Chinese). 19 January 2026. Retrieved 27 August 2026.
- 1 2 3 "棕色大熊猫"七仔"：在秦岭，为爱跑圈" [Brown giant panda Qizai: in Qinling, running for love]. China Daily (in Chinese). Xinhua News Agency. 25 April 2020. Retrieved 27 August 2026.
- ↑ "秦岭发现棕白色大熊猫 30年仅发现5次(图)" [Brown-white giant pandas have been found in the Qinling Mountains only 5 times in 30 years (picture)]. China News Service (in Chinese). 19 August 2015.
- 1 2 3 "Chinese scientists find gene responsible for giant panda Qizai's rare brown-and-white fur". People's Daily. 6 March 2024. Retrieved 21 July 2026.
- ↑ 不是"特工"也不是"萌宠" 揭秘"七仔"的真实日常 [Neither "secret agent" nor "cute pet": revealing Qi Zai's real daily life]. Hua Shang News (in Chinese). 25 December 2025. Retrieved 27 August 2026.
- ↑ "World's only captive brown giant panda succeeds in natural mating". Xinhua. 24 March 2020. Retrieved 18 July 2026.
- ↑ "大熊猫"荣荣"迎来2岁生日" [Why do so many pandas celebrate their birthdays during the summer?]. China Central Television (in Chinese). 28 July 2024. Retrieved 27 August 2026.
- ↑ Zhang, Baowei; Li, Ming; Zhang, Zejun; Goossens, Benoît; Zhu, Lifeng; Zhang, Shanning; Hu, Jinchu; Bruford, Michael W.; Wei, Fuwen (2007). "Genetic Viability and Population History of the Giant Panda, Putting an End to the 'Evolutionary Dead End'?". Molecular Biology and Evolution. 24 (8): 1801–1810. doi:10.1093/molbev/msm099. PMID 17513881.
- ↑ 秦岭大熊猫被确认为新亚种 [Qinling panda recognized as new subspecies] (in Chinese). Chinese Academy of Sciences. 15 February 2005. Archived from the original on 29 December 2024. Retrieved 2 June 2011.
- ↑ Wan, Qiu-Hong; Fang, Sheng-Guo; Wu, Hua; Fujihara, Tsutomo (May 2003). "Genetic differentiation and subspecies development of the giant panda as revealed by DNA fingerprinting". Electrophoresis. 24 (9): 397–402. doi:10.1002/elps.200390174. PMID 12731020.
- ↑ 秦岭再次发现"大熊猫中的明星"野生棕色大熊猫 [Qinling again finds a wild brown giant panda, the "star among giant pandas"]. Science Net (in Chinese). May 2024. Retrieved 27 August 2026.
- 1 2 Guan, Dengfeng; Sun, Shuyan; Song, Lingyun; Zhao, Pengpeng; Nie, Yonggang; Huang, Xin; Zhou, Wenliang; Yan, Li; Lei, Yinghu; Hu, Yibo; Wei, Fuwen (2024). "Taking a color photo: A homozygous 25-bp deletion in Bace2 may cause brown-and-white coat color in giant pandas". Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. 121 (11) e2317430121. Bibcode:2024PNAS..12117430G. doi:10.1073/pnas.2317430121. PMC 10945837. PMID 38437540.
