By Susan Milius
A giant panda that upends itself into a handstand may be sending a message that it’s one big bamboo-thrasher and not to be messed with.
Adult pandas roam mostly by themselves, so the scents they leave behind play a major role in communication, explains Ron Swaisgood of the San Diego Zoo. He, zoo colleague Angela M. White, and Hemin Zhang of Woolong Nature Reserve in China are trying to decode those scents.
Part of the chemicals’ messages may depend on their height from the ground, the team suggests in a paper to be published in Behavioral Ecology and Sociobiology. Pandas leave marks–squirts of urine, or smears from glands on their rears–at different heights on, say, rock faces and trees.