The fourth national survey of wild giant pandas - or rather their dung - has been launched at the Wanglang National Nature Reserve in Mianyang, Sichuan.
The survey is held about once every 10 years. The launch was attended by representatives from the State Forestry Administration, more than 30 national nature reserves and top research institutes such as the Chinese Academy of Sciences, the Mianyang Daily reported.
Giant pandas are rare and unsociable in the wild, with most adults living in solitude for decades. They are also reclusive, leaving behind little trace of their existence in the lush bamboo forest. A noticeable exception is their excrement, with an adult capable of producing more than a dozen kilograms a day.
Since the 1970s, mainland scientists had been using panda dung to estimate the number and distribution of wild giant pandas, counting 1,596 in Sichuan and Shaanxi provinces in the previous survey, completed in 2004. Now, equipped with the latest technology in molecular science, they hope to have a more precise estimate of the population and look into some questions that have long been puzzling them.
For instance, how often do giant pandas have sex in the wild?
Professor Wei Fuwen, chief scientist of the project and deputy director of the Chinese Academy of Sciences' Institute of Zoology, said yesterday that they were testing and refining some new theories, technology and equipment at the Wanglang reserve.