Su Lin () was the name given to the

giant panda The giant panda (''Ailuropoda melanoleuca''), 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 us ...

cub captured in 1936 and brought to America by

Ruth Harkness Ruth Elizabeth Harkness (21 September 1900 - 20 July 1947) was an American fashion designer and socialite who traveled to China in 1936 and brought out the first live giant panda to the United States - not in a cage or on a leash, but wrapped in h ...

History

Harkness mentioned in her 1938 book
The Baby Giant Panda
' that the capture took place within a day's walk from the Min River in Sichuan. Su Lin, about 9 weeks old at the time of his capture, was named after Su-Lin Young, the sister-in-law of Harkness's Chinese-American expedition partner

Quentin Young Quentin David Young (September 5, 1923 – March 7, 2016) was an American physician who was recognized for his efforts in advocating for single-payer health care in the United States. An activist who opposed the Vietnam War and worked on t ...

. Harkness translated Su Lin as meaning "a little bit of something very cute".SPatricia Sullivan.
Adelaide 'Su-Lin' Young, 96, Explorer and Panda Namesake
. ''The Washington Post''. May 22, 2008. Retrieved on November 17, 2009. (Harkness and Young were unaware that the baby panda was, in fact, a male.) Harkness returned to America with the bottle-fed cub, and Su Lin became the first live panda to be displayed in the United States. In April 1937, the panda was purchased by

Brookfield Zoo Brookfield Zoo, also known as the Chicago Zoological Park, is a zoo located in the Chicago suburb of Brookfield, Illinois. It houses around 450 species of animals in an area of . It opened on July 1, 1934, and quickly gained international recogn ...

outside of

Chicago (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name ...

, where he was visited by such celebrities as

Shirley Temple Shirley Temple Black (born Shirley Jane Temple;While Temple occasionally used "Jane" as a middle name, her birth certificate reads "Shirley Temple". Her birth certificate was altered to prolong her babyhood shortly after she signed with Fox in ...

Kermit Roosevelt Kermit Roosevelt MC (October 10, 1889 – June 4, 1943) was an American businessman, soldier, explorer, and writer. A son of Theodore Roosevelt, the 26th President of the United States, Kermit graduated from Harvard College, served in both Wo ...

, and

Helen Hayes Helen Hayes MacArthur ( Brown; October 10, 1900 – March 17, 1993) was an American actress whose career spanned 80 years. She eventually received the nickname "First Lady of American Theatre" and was the second person and first woman to have w ...

. Harkness brought a second panda, Mei-Mei, to be a companion for Su Lin at the zoo in February 1938. However, the two animals fought with each other, and were soon separated. Su Lin died of

pneumonia Pneumonia is an inflammatory condition of the lung primarily affecting the small air sacs known as alveoli. Symptoms typically include some combination of productive or dry cough, chest pain, fever, and difficulty breathing. The severity ...

only a few weeks after Mei-Mei's arrival.Andrea Frederici Ross. ''Let the Lions Roar''. Chicago Zoological Society. 1997. 64-67. He was replaced by Mei-Lan the following year.

References

{{Famous giant pandas Individual giant pandas Collection of the Field Museum of Natural History Individual animals in the United States Deaths from pneumonia in Illinois