How did Pandas find their way to the U.S.A.?

Our featured story for this month is about how the first Panda was able to enter the United States without a passport!

In 1934, wealthy adventurer Bill Harkness went to China, in the hopes of becoming the first Westerner to capture the giant panda.  Bill ended up dying of throat cancer in Shanghai in early 1936, leaving his widow, Ruth heartbroken. 

Ruth decided that she would finish her husbands dream and bring a giant panda back from China.  With the help of a Chinese-American explorer named Quentin Young, Ruth and her team traveled safely through treacherous mountain slopes and nearly impenetrable bamboo forests.  On November 9^th 1936, they found a nine-week-old panda cub which they named Su-Lin, after Ruth's sister-in-law.  On December 18^th, 1936, Ruth brought Su-Lin into the United States in her arms!  She bottle-fed the giant panda baby formula.

The panda was a huge success story.  Ruth and Su-Lin made news all around the world.  Eventually, Su-Lin found a home at the Brookfield Zoo in Chicago.

Photo from "Wikipedia"