The giant panda

   Seventy-five years ago almost no one had ever seen a giant panda. And not many more people had ever heard of one. This animal lives in a small region in the mountains of western China. Scientists first knew about the giant panda when a missionary sent the skin and some bones of one to a museum in Paris.
   For years after that, explorers tried to capture a panda. But no one succeeded until 1937. Then one was caught and sent to the Brookfield Zoo in Chicago. Since then several others have been caught.
   When the first panda reached the zoo, the keepers wondered what to feed it. In its home the panda eats nothing but bamboo. But in the zoo it ate other things. Corn-meal mush was one of them.
   A panda looks like a big stuffed toy. It is a clown and goes through many queer antics. In a zoo there is always a crowd around the panda cage.