Click the tartan to view its entry in The Scottish Registers of Tartans which includes registration details, restrictions, and registrant information.
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Panda Day
A Panda walks into a cafe. He orders a sandwich, eats it, then draws a gun and fires two shots into the air. "Why?" asks the confused waiter, as the panda makes toward the exit. The panda produces a badly punctuated wildlife annual and tosses it over his shoulder. "I'm a Panda," he says, at the door. "Look it up." The waiter turns to the relevant entry, and, sure enough, finds an explanation: "Panda. Large black and white bear-like mammal, native to China. Eats, shoots and leaves."
~ Oxford Comma Grammarians humour
One of the most recognizable bears in the world, Pandas take a leisurely approach to everything, an adaptation to their evolution in the bamboo forests of Central China. Because bamboo has relatively little nutritional value, a panda needs to consume about 40 lbs each day to survive! Because of this, pandas tend to live solitarily in order to ensure a territorially adequate food supply and typically may only have one cub during their once a year breeding season. This tartan was created to celebrate the arrival of a breeding pair of pandas at Edinburgh Zoo in 2011, gifted to the zoo from China. Represented in the colours of the design are the blacks, whites, and greys representing the gradation of the panda's fur, red to represent China's gift, and green for their favourite food - bamboo shoots and leaves! 🐼
This tartan was created to celebrate the arrival of a breeding pair of pandas at the Edinburgh Zoo in 2011.
Pandas have several days in the calendar year dedicated to awareness, conservation efforts, and general learning about these strikingly coloured bears.
The Royal Zoological Society of Scotland was formally established on the 18th of March 1909, by Edinburgh lawyer, Thomas Gillespie. In order to give the design a direct link to The Edinburgh Zoo’s heritage, the Gillespie Tartan was the starting point for this new design.
Notes from the register:
The main colours of the tartan are black and white, directly representing the Panda. Grey shades have been added to soften the tartan as well as to convey the gradation of colour from black to white, as seen on the Panda’s fur.
The red represents China as the pandas are their gift. The number 3 signifies the word luck which sounds similar to the Chinese character for birth. Where possible therefore, three red overchecks have been inserted into the heart of the design. This shows China, as well as the pandas, in the hearts and minds of Scotland and its people.
Green has also been included to represent a favourite food of the panda, bamboo.
For a look at the live Panda Cam at the Edinburgh Zoo, click the panda!