Bamboo is not just for food
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Giant pandas have been spotted using branches or pieces of bamboo to scratch themselves. Apart from the old anecdotal report of giant pandas rubbing dirt into their fur, this is the first recorded case of tool use among these animals, he says. Bin Yan at the Shaanxi Institute of Zoology in China.
“Because pandas spend a lot of time eating and resting, they come across as lazy, food-loving and cute,” Yang says. “So when we discovered that pandas can use tools, it changed our previous understanding of them.”
Yang and his colleagues noticed this behavior during other work and decided to learn more about it. They recorded 383 instances of tool use over 50 days of monitoring 18 giant pandas in captivity.Ailuropoda melanoleuca) in a zoo in China, including both males and females.
Pandas primarily used branches or pieces of bamboo to break trees, and almost always scratched. This meant they could scratch parts of the body that would be difficult to reach without tools.
Because the zoo's giant pandas live in a natural, outdoor environment, Yang says wild pandas may also use tools in this manner, although sightings of wild pandas doing this have not yet been reported.
Unlike other bears, pandas have a “false thumb” on their paws: the sixth toe is much shorter than human thumbs, which allows them to grasp objects in a way that other bears cannot. Pandas have relatively large brains: the ability to break off sticks specifically for use as tools suggests an ability for short-term planning, the researchers say.
“Pandas may have more complex thinking and behavior than previously thought,” Young says, but more work will be needed to learn more about these behaviors, including whether they can be taught to use tools.
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