Giant pandas like sweets, but prefer the natural ones

When given the choice of plain or sweetened water, giant pandas go for the sugary drink. And, they prefer the natural kind.

The pandas lap up water flavored with fructose and sucrose but aren’t as interested in artificial sweeteners, scientists report March 26 in PLOS ONE. The team tested the finding by isolating the genes that give the animals their sweet tooth and inserting them in human cells. The cells reacted strongly to natural sweeteners but not artificial ones. The result could help with conservation efforts to maintain the giant pandas’ population.