Who dared bring the first panda out of China? I'm Colton from Ripley's.com and this is your Weird Minute. The giant panda didn't always hold its place as a cornerstone of cute and adorable animals.
Before 1936, some naturalists reported that only three Westerners had even seen a living panda. It took the efforts of a New York socialite, Ruth Harkness, to finally bring a cuddly ball of black and white cuteness to the United States. Never an explorer herself, all that changed when her adventurous husband died.
Though pandas had been designated a new species in 1869, the only Westerners believed to have ever seen one alive were two of the sons of President Teddy Roosevelt. Harkness hired a guide and traipsed an abandoned, infested forest, eventually finding a cub and naming it Sue Lynn.
Officials confiscated the bear when she tried to get through customs, but she managed to smuggle it into the US by listing him officially as her dog. She raised the cub in her New York apartment for a few months before selling him to the Chicago Zoo, where, for the first time, the world could see and fall in love with a panda.
To learn more about the practice of panda diplomacy in China, head to ripleys.com. Rate the Weird Minute if you haven't already and tune in tomorrow for another Minute of Odd.