Say hello to Qi Zai, a unique brown-and-white panda who lives in Foping Panda Valley, China. <a href="https://www.idiva.com/work-life/balancing-act/meet-qizai-the-worlds-only-brown-qinling-panda-who-is-blowing-up-on-instagram/17080221">He’s the only brown panda in captivity right now</a> and the spotted number of his kind can be counted on one’s fingers — he’s really quite special.

​Brown pandas are “regular” pandas and they’re different from brown bears or polar bears. The change in their fur color is still debatable — some suggested that it’s caused by a recessive gene activated due to inbreeding, others blamed it on the environmental pollution in China which caused mutations.

As if Qi Zai’s solitude because of his difference from the other usual black-and-white pandas wasn’t pitiful enough, the story of how he was found is even sadder. Qi Zai was a 2-month-old weak little cub abandoned by his mother in the wilderness when he was rescued. After being saved, he was bullied by the black-and-white pandas who would eat all his bamboo. Poor Qi Zai couldn’t fight them off because he was too slow.

​Scientists were keen on Qi Zai having babies to study their fur and understand how it passes down from panda to panda, but there’s a slight problem — Qi Zai hasn’t been able to mate properly with Zhu Zhu, a feisty four-time mother who is an experienced mate chosen for him to naturally mate with. Now, Zhu Zhu will be artificially inseminated with Qizai’s sperm, but until then, Qi Zai will seem to retain his title as the world's most famous and only captive brown panda.

Image credit: He Xin#brown #panda #China