A decade ago, scientists were actively debating whether or not the giant panda was in fact a true bear. Some evidence suggested that they may have been more appropriately classified, along with the lesser or red panda, within the raccoon family. In recent years that debate has been settled with genetic evidence and we now agree that giant pandas are bears.

Since Bai Yun and Shi Shi arrived at the San Diego Zoo about 10 years ago, the CRES Giant Panda Research program has given us the opportunity to study pandas in a way that no other bear species has been studied before. We have taken an especially detailed look at their reproductive physiology and behavior, as well as other aspects of their biology and natural history. This close-up look at the biology of pandas is a result of our ongoing studies on the pandas here at the Zoo (now Bai Yun, Gao Gao, Mei Sheng, and Su Lin) as well as our parallel work with the pandas at the Wolong Breeding Center in Sichuan, China.

Some of our most interesting findings have elucidated how pandas use scent to communicate with each other over distance and time. Our studies have shown that a male will use scent to mark a territory and to illustrate how big and strong he is (accomplished by standing on his hands and marking as high up on a tree as he can!). Females express another interesting aspect of panda-to-panda communication as they near the time of their once-annual ovulation. As a female panda approaches the fertile period, she will begin using a finely orchestrated suite of scent and vocal cues to advertise her reproductive status. Our research team has relied on these cues to pinpoint Bai Yun’s ovulation and so have had success with both artificial insemination and natural breeding.

We have also devoted a considerable amount of time to the study of cub rearing, especially the interaction of mother and cub during the denning phase. Here again we have mapped out a delicate interaction between mother and cub that includes constant vocalizations by the cub and consistent nuturing responses by the mother.

Although pandas are arguably at the far end of the bear continuum, they do share certain fundamental characteristics with other bears. And so we ask ourselves, how much like pandas are the other bear species when it comes to things like communication, infant rearing, and perception? We have since designed studies to address some of these questions and we expect to spend the greater part of the next decade investigating questions such as: How do polar bears communicate over distance and time? How do sun bear mother and infants communicate? Are sun bear mothers’ disturbed by environmental noise? Is scent communication important to other bear species such as sun, polar, and sloth bears? Can we predict polar bear ovulation based on behavioral cues?

Seven of the eight extant bear species are in various states of conservation crisis. We feel it is important to expand our knowledge of all bear species through research. With this in mind, we are especially grateful to everyone who has supported, or shown interest in, the conservation of pandas, as this support aids in the conservation all bear species.

Megan Owen is a research laboratory coordinator for the Applied Animal Ecology Division, Giant Panda Unit, of CRES.

Watch pandas daily on Panda Cam.

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