Panda's "dark circles" turn white

The black eye circles of a panda at an eastern China zoo has turned white.

The zoo says it's likely caused by mites and the panda is under treatment.

The Hangzhou zoo in east China's Zhejiang Province received a pair of panda siblings named "Chengda" and "Chengxiao" from the southwest province of Sichuan in September.

Both of the pandas are two years old.

Tourists noticed that the dark circles around Chengxiao's eyes had disappeared and the fur had turned white.

A picture was published online and sparked concern that the panda was sick.

SOUNDBITE: WANG LIFEN, Panda feeder

"The panda's dark circles had been found to turn white for some time,because it's not obvious at the beginning."

Wang said the color change was because the black fur of the panda had shed, possibly due to mites.

She said Chengxiao had shown similar symptoms while living at the Chengdu panda base.

The base has offered therapy and the panda is in good condition, showing no symptoms of abnormality.

SOUNDBITE: WANG LIFEN, Panda feeder

"We are now cooperating with the Chengdu base to treat the panda. But the treatment requires time, fans don't need to worry."

And that's all for this edition of China Report. Thank you for joining us. More news on our website--www.cncworld.tv... Bye for now.

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