Bear Cubs
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Extremely Rare Brown and White Panda Spotting
An extremely rare brown and white panda was recently spotted in the Qinling region of China. Only 7 such examples of this pigmentation have been seen in the past 25 years, suggesting that the low numbers of giant pandas have lead to inbreeding. This suggestion stems from the nature of this particular sort of pigmentation, which has been hypothesized to only be inherited when both parents carry the gene; in other words, the pigmentation is a recessive trait. While this may contradict the apparently maintained genetic diversity revealed in the giant panda genome published last month in Nature, it is still an important question to consider and investigate.