Help! Some pandas are losing their black eye patches. In January, several pandas at Chengdu Panda Base in Sichuan, China, lost the fur near their eyes. This left unusual white spots where their pale skin peeked through.
The culprit? An infestation of Demodex mites. Normally, the mites live on pandas without a problem. But when a panda is sick or stressed, its immune system gets weakened and the mite population booms. This causes demodicosis, a condition in which the panda’s skin is inflamed and scaly.
Veterinarian Kati Loeffler of the International Fund for Animal Welfare says the shy animals may be stressed by their living conditions. About 10,000 people visit the pandas daily. “Demodicosis, especially in older animals, is like bells tolling from the towers that these animals are suffering,” she says.