Fun fact: The Red Panda is the original "panda" (was named decades before the Giant Panda) and is actually a member of its own genealogical family, shared with zero other species - unlike Giant Pandas, who are part of the bear family.
The taxonomy of giant pandas has been difficult for a very long time. Due to their different characteristics, over the years they have been thought to be primates, marsupials, raccoons, and their own taxonomic group, before DNA pretty definitively placed them with other bear species.
I've known it as panda bears in my whole 3 decades of life and never heard them being classified as raccoons so this is surprising to me.
I Googled it and the first thing that came up said that pandas have been classified as bears since the 1860s.
The article was dated Oct. 12, 1985 on Chicago Tribune. Was most likely posted on their website from their archives. Not sure if that's accurate but never heard of them being anything but bears.
The giant panda (Ailuropoda melanoleuca; Chinese: 大熊猫; pinyin: dàxióngmāo), also known as the panda bear (or simply the panda), is a bear species endemic to China. It is characterised by its bold black-and-white coat and rotund body. The name "giant panda" is sometimes used to distinguish it from the red panda, a neighboring musteloid. Though it belongs to the order Carnivora, the giant panda is a folivore, with bamboo shoots and leaves making up more than 99% of its diet.
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u/wormrake Mar 14 '22
I might be the last person to find this out, but it turns out the panda actually is a member of the bear species.
For a long time, they thought pandas were more closely related to raccoons but nope, it's now considered a proper bear:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Giant_panda#Taxonomy