Chinese Hat

Ancient Chinese were familiar with giant pandas. They considered them rare and noble beasts. Though the Chinese found (or imagined) hundreds of medicinal uses for other animals, there were relatively few uses for panda parts. Pandas were unknown to the western world until the 20th century. Until a giant panda was captured November 9, 1927, the animal was considered either extinct or a myth. Theodore Roosevelt, Jr. and his son Kermit were the first westerners to shoot a panda on an expedition in China. It might strike a child of the 21st century as odd that the son and grandson of the famous conservationist president would deliberately kill an endangered animal. But a hundred years ago this is what conservation meant; they would shoot an animal and have it mounted and displayed for future generations to observe.