Ailuropoda melanoleuca

The panda or panda bear is a famous animal known for it being a symbol of China and a representative for endangered species. It is currently found only in some mountainous bamboo forests of China due to habitat loss and the hunting for their pelts. They used to be found as far as what is now Myanmar and Vietnam. 
Despite it currently being a symbol of China, there is not much known-history available in English of how Chinese people interacted with these animals. Pandas have nearly no medical uses in modern CTM. If there are some uses those are reserved to indigenous people that knew it well or history. As an example, its said that its urine dissolved a disorder where it felt like needles were stuck in the throat. There isn't much of a demand for their products in the greater China area. Religiously or superstitiously, panda fur was thought to have kept ghosts away and allowed more future premonition; while 
There is a note that to some they may have been too precious to kill, even in ancient times. It is found with some royalty, such as in a zoo or in a crypt. However, it is almost never found in ancient art, from what I have seen. There are various mentions of mythological monsters possibly having been the panda, but only debatably. And I don't know if that debate was in English or Chinese due to having written it a long time ago, but I suspect it was in English. I don't know if Chinese people have the same sort of doubts. That's why I need to add references to every edit. 
There are two subspecies, each being a different color: white with black markings and light grayish brown with darker brown markings. The former, the more famous type, is A. m. melanoleuca; the Giant Panda. The latter, the Qinling Panda, is dubbed A. m. qinlingensis. They have two thumbs for grasping bamboo, which they almost exclusively eat. They cannot taste savory flavors. Noticeably, they are considered as belonging to Ursidae in English documents, having been verified as being closer to bears than raccoons, to the relief of some people. However they are officially listed by the Chinese government's conservation program as belonging to Ailuropodidae. What this means is that in China, they are considered to not be bears, or at least not "true" bears in the sense that a modern English-speaker might understand it. They belong into their own family, not just genus.https://baike.baidu.com/item/%E5%9B%BD%E5%AE%B6%E9%87%8D%E7%82%B9%E4%BF%9D%E6%8A%A4%E9%87%8E%E7%94%9F%E5%8A%A8%E7%89%A9%E5%90%8D%E5%BD%95/665608 
== References ==
Category:Bears
Category:Pandas
Category:Ailuropodidae