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Can you find the panda in this optical illusion?

Unfortunately, seeing a giant panda in the wild is somewhat unlikely these days, with only about 1,600 currently alive outside of captivity. This makes giant pandas the rarest species of bear on the planet, so it’s no surprise that they are listed as endangered by World Conservation Union's (IUCN's) Red List of Threatened Species.

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In an attempt to help raise awareness about the plight of the panda, Russian artist Ilja Klemencov has created this mind-melting optical illusion, which contains an appropriately elusive panda hidden behind black and white zig-zagged lines.

hidden panda
Try and find the panda. Ilja Klemencov/IFLScience

The image has gone viral, with people reporting varying levels of difficulty in spotting the panda. Those who have trouble identifying the bear are advised to take a step back or rotate the picture to a near-ninety degree angle, at which point all should be revealed.

Panda
Ilja Klemencov/IFLScience

 

Those who do spot the hidden panda will notice that it is, in fact, the famous logo of the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF), which is currently among the most active organizations working toward panda conservation. The optical illusion is also accompanied by the caption “They can disappear.”

Giant pandas are native to the broadleaf and coniferous forests of central China, where they enjoy a diet of about 99 percent bamboo. Over recent decades, they have been driven from the lowlands by farming, deforestation, and industrialization, and now live only in the mountains, at an altitude of between 1,500 to 3,000 meters (5,000 to 10,000 feet).

Read the original article on IFL Science. Copyright 2016. Follow IFL Science on Twitter.
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