Giant pandas (Ailuropoda melanoleuc) are native to south central China, a region that experiences variations in the environment, including a mix of harsh winters and warm summers. Giant pandas mostly eat bamboo, although they will also eat other grasses, wild tubers, or even meat in the form of birds, rodents or carrion. The animals are at risk from deforestation and they are described as a conservation reliant vulnerable species, which means they require continuing species-specific wildlife management intervention.
New research has been published relating to giant pandas, undertaken by University of California, Davis, and California State University, Long Beach. The focus has been with the development of the panda’s fur colorings. Here two factors have been pulled out: camouflage and communication. The research group behind the study also researched why a zebra is black and white (the answer was to repel flies).
Starting with camouflage, the research found that most of the panda, that is its face, neck, belly, rump, is white to help it hide in snowy habitats; whereas the arms and legs are black, helping the animal to hide in shade. They may also be a secondary evolutionary reason, as well as protecting pandas from predators: diet. Here the researchers argue that the dual coloration of the panda fur stems from its poor diet of bamboo and inability to digest a broader variety of plants.
The second reason called out is communication, and this relates to the markings on the head of the animal. The markings on the head send out specific signals. For example, dark ears convey a sense of ferocity, as a warning to predators; whereas the dark eye patches allow pandas to recognize each other.
Explaining how they reached this conclusion, lead scientist Ted Stankowich says it all came down to observation: “This really was a Herculean effort by our team, finding and scoring thousands of images and scoring more than 10 areas per picture from over 20 possible colors”, adding: “Sometimes it takes hundreds of hours of hard work to answer what seems like the simplest of questions: Why is the panda black and white?”
The research is published in the journal Behavioral Ecology in a paper called “Why is the giant panda black and white?”
