Scott No: 2597-98
Serial number: 1995-15
Values in set: 2
Date of issue: September 1, 1995
Designers: Xu Yanbo
Size: 40*30mm
Perforation: 11*11.5
Sheet composition: 20
Printing process: gravure-engraving combined

Due to the changes in climate and living environment in the world, the number of many animals has increasingly reduced and some animals are even near extinction, such as Ailuropoda melanoleuca and David¡¯s deer in China, Phascolorctos cinereus (Koala) in Australia and bald eagle in the United States.

In China, Ailuropoda melanoleuca is generally called giant panda, which has a fat body, short tail, dense and lustrous fur. The animal is white while the part around the eyes, ears, the four limbs and shoulders are black . At present, panda only scatters in the remote mountains in western China and its living environment is forests in mountains 2,000-3,500 meters above sea level where bamboo grows. Solitary by nature, panda has a slow sense of sight and hearing. Pandas usually mate in spring and give birth to only 1-2 babies once in late autumn. To date, China has made success in the artificial raising and reproduction of pandas.

Koala is a lovely small animal only found in Australia. It lives on eucalyptus and seldom gets down to the ground, eating the leaves and buds of eucalyptus and drinking little water. Belonging to the order of Marsupialia, young koala is born at a weight of 5-6 grams and can come out of its mother marsupium six months after birth, but it has to stay at the back of its mother. Unlike kangaroo, koala has its marsupium open to the rear.

Panda and koala are both world-class rare animals.