Wildlife
Why some pandas are brown
Qinling pandas split from their Sichuan cousins long ago. One of them, Qizai, is the only brown giant panda in captivity.
Local Panda Tours Editorial · 2026-09-02 · 6 min read
The Qinling mountains hold a separate subspecies of giant panda, separated from the Sichuan population long enough to develop a rounder skull, a shorter snout, and occasionally a coat that is brown where it should be black.
Qizai
Found as a weak cub in Foping county in 2009, Qizai was raised in captivity and named after a character in a Chinese film. He is now the only brown giant panda held anywhere, lives at the Qinling Four Treasures park west of Xi’an, and has fathered cubs that so far have all been black and white.
Qizai is one animal with a keeper-managed routine. Ask which pandas are on display on your date before building a trip around a single face.
