Armand David was a French Catholic missionary and naturalist. While doing mission work in China, he surveyed its plants and animals and introduced many new species to the West.
In 1869 he obtained a black-and-white pelt in the mountains of Sichuan and sent it to a museum in Paris. This was how the giant panda became known to Western science. His name also lives on in Pere David’s deer and the dove tree (Davidia).
