Giant pandas in China don’t rub horse poop on their necks and faces and roll around in it just for fun. On this NationalPandaDay, learn more about why one of the world's cutest animals has one of the world's grossest habits.
The panda bear may one of the world's cutest animals, but it also has one of the world's grossest habits: Giant pandas in central China's Foping National Nature Reserve like to rub horse manure on their necks and faces and roll around in it to cover their entire bodies. Now, researchers say they have an explanation for these dung baths. The horse poop contains compounds that might help the animals deal with colder temperatures.
To get to the bottom of things, researchers analyzed 38 instances of dung rolling, captured on infrared cameras at the reserve from June 2016 to July 2017. The bears tended to roll in horse poop less than 10 days old. These feces contained natural compounds, called beta-caryophyllene and beta-caryophyllene oxide , that are scarce in older dung, say the scientists, led by researchers at the Chinese Academy of Sciences's Institute of Zoology.
Although it's not concrete proof, the authors"provided solid evidence from the molecular level to elegantly explain the unique behavior," Fan Yang, a biophysicist at the Zhejiang University School of Medicine, wrote in an email. The same thermo-regulating receptors are present in many animals, including, and humans, he notes. So it is possible that using natural compounds to regulate body temperature"may actually be a general strategy widely adopted in other animals.
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