In China the panda is seen as a “national treasure”. The Chinese government has even given pandas as gifts to other countries governments. One Tibetan legend of the panda is about how they got their beautiful, and unusual black markings. A long time ago, when pandas lived in the mountains of Tibet, they were white as snow. They were friends with four female shepherds that watched their flocks, in the mountains near their village. One day as the shepherdesses where playing with a panda cub, a leopard leapt out of the bush and tried to attack the cub. The young shepherdesses threw themselves in front of the cub to save it and were killed by the leopard. All the pandas in the area were saddened by their deaths and held a memorial service to honor them and their bravery. To remember their sacrifice for the cub, the pandas all wore black ashes on their arms (as was the local custom). As they wept for the shepherdesses, they wiped their eyes with their paws, they covered their ears to block out the sound of the crying and they hugged each other in grief. As they did these things the ash spread and blackened their fur. The pandas did not wash the black off their fur as a way to remember the girls. To this day, pandas are covered with the black markings to always remember.
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