Giant pandas in captivity have been observed breaking branches and pieces of bamboo to scratch hard-to-reach areas, using a “pseudo-finger” rudimentary that other bears do not have.
According to , giant pandas have been seen using branches or pieces of bamboo to scratch. In addition to an old anecdotal report about giant pandas rubbing dirt into their fur, this is the first known record of tool use by these animalsit says Bin Yangfrom the Shaanxi Institute of Zoology, China.
“As pandas spend a lot of time eating and resting, they give the impression of being lazy, greedy and cute” says Yang. “So when we discovered that pandas can use tools, changed our perspective on them”.
Yang and his colleagues had noticed this behavior during other work and decided to study the phenomenon further. Registered 383 tool use cases over 50 days of observation of 18 giant pandas in captivity — Ailuropoda melanoleuca — in a zoo in China, including males and females.
Pandas mainly used branches or pieces of bamboo that they broke from trees, almost always to scratch themselves, which led tohes allowed you to reach parts of the body that would be difficult to reach without the tool.
Because the pandas at this zoo live in a naturalistic outdoor environment, Yang suggests that the Wild pandas can also use tools in this wayalthough there are still no records of observations of this behavior in nature.
Unlike other bears, pandas have a “false thumb” on their pawsa sixth digit much shorter than the human thumb, which allows them to grasp objects in a way that other bears cannot.
Os pandas have relatively large brains – the fact that they break branches specifically to use them as tools suggests a short-term planning abilitysay researchers.
“The pandas may have more complex cognition and behaviors than previously thought,” says Yang, but more work will be needed to better understand this behavior, including whether they can be taught to use tools in a directed way.
Teresa Oliveira Campos, ZAP //
