The full-face photo of the world's only wild white giant panda has been released. The dark circles under its eyes seem to have been "Photoshopped out". What is the reason for its rare fur color?

Xinhua News Agency reported that on May 27, the Sichuan Wolong National Nature Reserve Administration released a batch of complete activity images of the world's only known wild white giant panda. Infrared-triggered cameras recorded for the first time a white giant panda and a mother and child in the same frame. This is the third time the white giant panda has been photographed after May 2019 and February 2020.

The picture below was released by the Sichuan Wolong National Nature Reserve Administration in May 2019, when it released the world's first photo of a white giant panda.

It can be seen from the photo that this white giant panda no longer has the iconic "dark circles" under its eyes. Netizens joked that this is what a giant panda looks like after removing its makeup.

The characteristic that distinguishes pandas from other bears is their black and white fur. Why is this giant panda different? Experts have two guesses about the possibility: one is related to albinism, and the other is that it may be a mutation of the fur color gene.

Albinism is closely related to melanin. Melanosomes are found in melanocytes in animals, which contain tyrosinase, which can convert tyrosine into melanin. In albino animals, the gene that controls tyrosinase has a genetic mutation, resulting in a lack of tyrosinase, which prevents tyrosine from being converted into melanin, thereby interfering with the production of pigments or inhibiting the distribution of pigments, causing albinism.

Albino animals are mostly found among reptiles, birds and mammals, among which more species are found in mammals, including white snakes, white turtles, white ring-necked pheasants, white crows, white rabbits, white mice, white monkeys, white foxes, white lions, white tigers, white camels, white yaks, and so on. Humans also have such individuals, who are suffering from albinism, commonly known as "Tianlaoer".

Generally speaking, animals with albinism have red pupils. Li Sheng, a researcher at the School of Life Sciences of Peking University, once speculated that this white giant panda might have albinism, mainly because in the blurred photos, you can see that its eyes seem to be red.

In addition to albinism, there is another reason that causes an animal's fur color to fade or even turn white, which is a mutation in the animal's fur color gene. In nature, there are many animals with white fur or feathers, such as Arctic foxes, polar bears, white swans, and egrets. They are not albino animals, and their white body color is the normal expression of a dominant gene.

Ordinary non-albino white animals, such as white tigers, have a gene that affects the synthesis of yellow and red pigments in their hair and skin mutated, causing the parts that should be brown to appear white, but the black stripes are not affected.

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After the genes in these animals that were originally responsible for synthesizing pigments in their hair mutate, they can no longer produce the corresponding pigments. The hair that has lost its pigment naturally becomes lighter and whiter.

Researcher Li Sheng said that the white giant panda had been tracked since it was a cub. Up to now, it has not only survived healthily, but also has normal interactions with other wild giant pandas in the area. As to whether its albino gene will be stably inherited in this small population and gradually spread, it is not clear yet and needs more follow-up research.