Three year-old sisters Meilun and Meihuan are said to be experiencing “culture shock” since their arrival at the Chengdu Research Base of Giant Panda Breeding on November 5.

As it were, the giant pandas are finding it difficult to fit in during the month-long quarantine because, like any new expat to China, they don’t speak the language and they don’t like the food.

As the China Daily reports, Meilun and Meihuan cannot understand the Sichuan dialect spoken by trainers at the research base. Aside from their names, the pandas don’t respond to the phrases “Have you eaten?” and “Did you have a good time?” spoken by panda trainer Luo Yunhong. Instead, the wild animals understand basic English phrases such as “come here.”

Settling down for the pandas is especially difficult since they are fussy with their food, choosing only to eat “American-style” biscuits instead of Chinese steamed corn bread (wowotou).

In fact, Luo said the new arrivals prefer to eat biscuits so much that everything they eat – from bamboo to apples and even water –must be mixed with the biscuits.

“It hasn’t been easy feeding them local food,” said Luo. “The ingredients are the same, but they still prefer the flavor of biscuits to wowotou,” he said, adding that they have “similar nutritional ingredients but different flavors result from different preparation methods.”

However, the concept that two panda bears have been “Westernized” may be due to the cultural biases of the Chinese newspapers reporting the story.

Meihuan and Meilun are like any youngster who has a preference for “American fast food”, as China Daily puts it. And yet, the “biscuits” they prefer aren’t Oreos, but something called “leafeater biscuits”, a type of prepared food that zoos use to feed leaf-eating animals.  It resembles neither American fast food nor Chinese food, because it’s animal food.

It looks something like this:

And while it seems logical enough for Chinese news media to think that the national mascot of China should understand Chinese, it remains that pandas have their own language – something discovered at the same place where Luo works.

After a five year study, Chinese scientists decoded 13 vocalizations used by the giant panda that include “baa-ing” like sheep by male pandas during courtship and bird-like twittering by females to signal their readiness to mate. Panda cubs have a vocabulary that includes “Gee-Gee” (I’m hungry), “Wow-Wow” (Not happy!) or “Coo-Coo” (Nice!).

Since 2006, China has released seven pandas back into the wild after undergoing “survival training” in which the pandas are taught to be less reliant on humans, something that usually doesn’t involve taking orders from a human, like in a circus.

Despite the latest release last month, many pandas raised by the research base are destined to live in zoos where they are a huge tourist attraction. Visitors at a number of Chinese zoos can interact with pandas by posing with them in pictures, or feeding them treats on the end of sticks.

As a lucrative asset, Meilun and Meihuan will probably be worth even more due to their status as Westernized sea turtles. And yet, these pandas are in fact not Chinese by birth, despite being owned by China.

The twins were born on July 15, 2013 at Zoo Atlanta in Georgia, USA. Meihuan and Meilun received their Chinese names through a multiple-choice online poll of various Chinese names. Before last month, they have never been to China.

The twins have the distinction of being the first surviving pandas born in the US. As part of the agreement, any pandas born in captivity belong to China, and must be sent back upon adulthood where they will take part in breeding programs.

With Meihuan and Meilun both destined for motherhood, we can only hope that their cravings for “American fast food” during pregnancy won’t be too pronounced.

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The 12 year-old male panda, named Meiling, grabbed onto the man’s leg after being awakened. As seen in the zoo surveillance footage, Meiling wrestled the man down and did not let him go for around five minutes.

The man was finally able to remove his leg from the grasp of the 200-kilogram bear after it turned over on its back.

Deputy director of the Nanjing Zoo Kuang Huaming told a press conference on Sunday that Meiling was given a thorough examination on Sunday, and found to have suffered no injuries from the incident.

Witnesses say the man only suffered a ripped pant leg from his encounter, and is said to have immediately left the scene. He was reportedly trying to impress two girls by petting the panda.

This past October, a number of Chinese zoo have come under public scrutiny for poor handling of their giant pandas, a nationally protected and beloved animal in China.

Netizens called for the Lanzhou Zoo to be stripped of its right to host a giant panda after one was spotted with a blood stain on its back, prompting suspicion of abuse. Earlier in the month, a public outcry was raised when photos show a panda at the Shanxi Zoo eating garbage thrown to it by zoo visitors.

Giant Pandas are treated no less than a “national treasure” in China where conservation efforts have recently succeeded in having it removed from a list of endangered species.

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Photos surfaced online Saturday of a panda named Shulan at the Lanzhou Zoo in Gansu with a large stain on its back, prompting animal rights activists to argue the animal had been abused.

The zoo promptly denied the accusations, however it was too late. The public outcry initiated a swift response from national and provincial forestry and wildlife departments which sent several government experts to the zoo the next day. While a preliminary investigation confirmed the panda had received a small wound on its back, it was determined the discoloration was from an iodine treatment spray, and not from blood.

The experts further determined that the panda was not mistreated, and likely received the wound from the sharpened end of a bamboo stalk while eating or rolling on the ground.

Wang Huitai, deputy head of the zoo, denies it mistreats the pandas. Wang explained they removed Shulan from public viewing, a move that aroused further public suspicion, because the controversy attracted too many visitors to the panda enclosure.

“We would consider bringing her back for public viewing on Monday if the situation gets better,” said Wang.

Despite the denials, people remain skeptical. One person wrote, “But why are they still so thin?” while another simply pointed out that “They would get better treatment if they were sent abroad.”

One person commented that the welfare of all animals at the Lanzhou Zoo is generally poor, saying: “I’ve been to this zoo. Some of the larger birds have either their wings or legs broken; they are all just awaiting death! Can’t bear to go again after having gone once, it’s a shame to see.”

The Lanzhou Zoo had also been under fire by the public for previous treatment of its pandas. In 2015, netizens complained that the zoo’s panda, Lanzai, was “dirty” and “lethargic”, while the panda facility was criticized for being dirty and in poor condition in 2013.

Just last week, the Taiyuan Zoo in Shanxi was criticized for allowing one of its pandas to eat garbage thrown to it by visitors. Similar to the Lanzhou controversy, complaints from a netizen that openly questioned the zoo’s ability to keep pandas led to public discontent and government intervention.

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The scandal erupted October 5 after a Weibo user posted photographs of a giant panda at the Taiyuan Zoo eating garbage thrown into its pen by visitors. In addition to cookies and fruit rinds, visitors threw balloons and water bottles.

The account that first posted the photographs placed the blame squarely on the zoo, claiming they were unfit to keep China’s treasured national mascot:

The Taiyuan Zoo doesn’t deserve to keep pandas!!!! Don’t know if it’s Porkball or Shunshun which is eating garbage thrown by the visitors!! This photo was taken in the outdoor area! But what’s important is that there isn’t anyone looking after them!! Can’t find any zookeepers! Can’t find any minders!! Makes me so angry!

A number of Webio users echoed the outrage at the way the zoo was treating its pandas, with some calling for the pandas to be taken away. One person said, “What is this? Is this a zoo, or a garbage dump?!!!” While another said, “Rescind the right for Taiyuan Zoo to keep pandas!”

Other netizens focused their anger at a different target, with one asking: “Aren’t the visitors more deserving of being criticized?”

The China Conservation and Research Center for Giant Pandas took to Weibo to press the Taiyuan Zoo for an explanation. The zoo confirmed the panda seen in the photographs is Shunshun, one of the two pandas currently in its care, and apologized. It vowed to increase zoo staff to prevent visitors from throwing trash in the future.

The Taiyuan Zoo said it had 15,000 visitors on October 5th, and that some of them had thrown garbage inside the panda pen. It added that the pandas have since been moved inside, and are both in good health.

A day later, the Weibo account for the China Conservation and Research Center for Giant Pandas published photos showing a spotless panda pen (shown below).

This is not the first time Chinese tourists have been caught throwing garbage into animal pens.

Last May, three fallow deer at the Shanghai Zoo died after eating plastic bags fed to them by zoo visitors. In 2013, ten crocodiles at the Shenzhen Zoo were killed by rocks thrown by zoo visitors. And just last month, a giraffe that died from eating plastic bags at a Wuxi zoo was stuffed and mounted to serve as a warning for zoo visitors not to feed the animals.

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On Sunday, the newly-updated Red List maintained by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) of the world’s most endangered animals, excluded the giant panda.

A similar list released earlier this year by China’s Ministry of Environmental Protection and the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), also removed the giant panda from the endangered list.

According to a census report released by China’s State Forestry Administration, there were 1,864 wild pandas and 375 captive pandas worldwide at the end of 2013.

Zhang Hemin, chief of the China Conservation and Research Center for the Giant Panda in Wenchuan county, Sichuan, said that downgrading the panda from the endangered list was a mistake and would only be detrimental to the animal’s conservation.

Zhang added that 24 out of the 33 groups of wild pandas found by the census are believed to be endangered, with some groups numbering less than 30 pandas. Eighteen groups have fewer than 10 pandas each and are in severe danger of extinction, he added.

Other experts, however, view the panda’s new status as a welcome change.

Wei Fuwen, a senior researcher at CAS and participant in the Red List evaluation, applauded the decision. “This is not a reckless move, but one based on a great deal of scientific research about giant pandas’ living environment, population and conservation status. Scientifically, the wild population is increasing, and the natural habitat is expanding,” said Wei.

“The change of the panda’s status on the Red List will help to alter the pessimistic view of the public when it comes to panda protection, as many still hold the outdated opinion that pandas are in grave danger.”

In the 1970s, the giant panda population was estimated to be just 1,000.

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Animals raised in captivity often forget the necessary skills to survive in the wild. For this reason, panda caretakers often wear panda suits to help reduce the human imprint. This imprint is further reduced by dousing the suits in panda urine to mask the human scent.

The photographs, taken by documentary filmmaker Ami Vitale, were published in this month’s issue of National Geographic, and can also be found on Vitale’s Pinterest account. The series will eventually be made into a documentary film to be aired next year on PBS.

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Twenty video cameras have been set up at the China Conservation and Research Center for the Giant Panda in order to capture all the steamy panda-on-panda action.

Launched by China Network Television in 2013, iPanda is a streaming site that offers uninhibited voyeurs an online peak at all things panda.

As challenging as it has been to breed the pandas, researchers say 20 years of study has helped them overcome these difficulties.

At first, “only 20 percent of the pandas could have sex naturally. To motivate male pandas’ sex drive, researchers let them watch videos of other pandas mating” and fed them an aphrodisiac, said Zhang Heming, director of the panda research center.

Now, between 70 and 80 percent of the pandas can have sex naturally, he said.

And yet, it turns out the best help researchers can offer to pandas during breeding season is to leave them alone. A study conducted at the same China Conservation and Research Centre for the Giant Panda found that pandas breed under the best conditions without human interference, concluding “The future of conservation breeding will not take place in a test tube.”

All the same, the China Conservation and Research Centre for the Giant Panda said yesterday that 10 out of the 26 pandas at the facility had successfully mated. Of these, six mated naturally, two had artificial insemination, while the remaining two had both.

Plans to have the remaining 16 female pandas “mate” will take place later this year.

Zhang is enthusiastic about the iPanda video streaming service and what it could mean for the appreciation of the panda. “Now each year, tens of millions of people visit the website, where they can have a 24-hour view of pandas’ lives,” Zhang said.

Here’s some clip featuring Wu Gang and Cui Cui:

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In a recent report in the scientific journal, Nature Communications, researchers found that when it comes to procreation and matters of the heart, giant pandas don’t appreciate human matchmakers: “Giant pandas paired with [their] preferred partners have significantly higher copulation and birthrates.”

In order to expand the DNA pool and discourage inbreeding, scientists have generally paired potential panda breeding partners based on genetic profile. However, getting the selected pairs to successfully breed has proven to be a frustrating endeavor, with pandas showing little sexual interest in their arranged partners.

To see if letting “nature take its course” is in fact the best possible method, a team of scientists from the USA and China conducted an experiment at the China Conservation and Research Centre for the Giant Panda in Sichuan. Pandas were exposed to potential breeding partners under controlled situations, having limited access between adjacent cages. Scientists recorded their interactions, noting whether they were mutually attracted, initiated hostile behavior, or simply showed no interest.

The pandas were then introduced to a number of partners for mating that included both preferred and non-preferred partners. As the researchers discovered, the pandas were more inclined to mate with partners they actually liked.

“The highest reproductive performance was seen when both males and females showed mutual preference,” the study said. “Mate incompatibility can impede captive breeding programs by reducing reproductive rates. It is therefore surprising that mate preferences have not figured more prominently in captive breeding programs… The future of conservation breeding will not take place in a test tube,” the report said.

And yet, artificial insemination is a big part of the efforts to repopulate the giant panda species, many of whom have gone on to be star attractions at zoo exhibits around the world.

So while providing pandas with plenty of food to eat and a safe environment in which to grow is certainly important, when it comes to mating, perhaps we humans should should just let pandas be pandas.

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Chinese scientists have decoded 13 vocalizations used by the giant panda that include “baa-ing” like sheep by male pandas during courtship and bird-like twittering by females to signal their readiness to mate.

The findings come from a five-year study conducted at the China Conservation and Research Center for the Giant Panda in Sichuan in which audio recordings were made between mother and cub in various situations like eating, mating, nursing, and fighting.

“Trust me – our researchers were so confused when we began the project, they wondered if they were studying a panda, a bird, a dog, or a sheep,” says center director Zhang Hemin.

As reported by China Daily, specific meanings are attached to the communication between giant pandas:

Panda cubs can barely vocalize at all except to say things like “Gee-Gee” (I’m hungry), “Wow-Wow” (Not happy!) or “Coo-Coo” (Nice!).

Zhang says understanding how pandas communicate will help conservationists protect the endangered animals, particularly in the wild. As well, the center hopes to eventually invent a “panda translator” that can decode the panda’s conversations using voice-recognition technology.

An endangered species on the verge of being wiped out, the biggest threat to the existence of the panda is the eradication of its natural habitat that grows its main source of food, bamboo.

Fewer than 1,800 giant pandas exist in the wild, solely in China. Some 300 pandas live at zoos and conservation centers were visitors can interact with the adorable animal by posing with them in pictures, or feeding them treats stuck at the end of sticks.

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That’s exactly what happened when the Los Angeles Times ran an article in its science section about how pandas were more suited to a meat-based diet than their current bamboo-based nutritional regime. Naturally, anger erupted at the United States for telling pandas what to eat.

Aside from the ridiculous nature of being offended by a study of the diet of a particular species of animal, the online rage missed a more important point: the research was conducted in China, and by Chinese researchers. But evidently that’s not enough to get in the way of some good, old-fashioned nationalism.

The Chinese researchers studied 121 panda stool samples and performed an analysis that found the microorganisms in their digestive systems are better suited for the digestion of animal protein rather than plant protein.

Pandas started eating bamboo 7 million years ago, and began to eat it exclusively 2 million years ago. And yet, pandas have not developed in the same way as other herbivores in that they don’t have long intestinal tracts. Instead, pandas require 14 hours to digest the 28 pounds of bamboo they eat everyday. In other words, pandas are basically an evolutionary error.

Here’s what some people had to say about the study, which was conducted by researchers associated with Jiaotong University in Shanghai, Yunnan University and the Chengdu Research Base of Giant Panda Breeding – none of which are known for being centers of American geostrategic conspiracies:

未艾:
After completing my studies, I’ve discovered what giant pandas most like to eat are in fact Americans.

家南家南家南：
Fuck, it seems like what our national animal eats must also be determined by the world police.

扎德神：
The US media shouldn’t have dinner, instead they should eat [poo.emoji]

郑同学:
#$@%, these American just have to get involved in everything. Whatever someone happens to eat, it has to get involved, even if it means investigating panda feces! That is our national treasure, it will eat whatever it wants to eat! That’s how renxing (capricious) it is!

阳光绿原：
Whatever is most suitable for a giant panda to eat is something only a giant panda can know. Bamboo is something they continue to eat in the present after eating it for tens of thousands of years. They really like it, there’s nothing wrong with it, so we should let pandas continue to eat bamboo. No matter how scientific the findings of the US scientist that says that pandas should be eating meat, it’s the pandas themselves that disagree, making this into a hugely boring farce bought with someone’s fortune, and is better off forgotten instead.

As much as some Chinese want to think of the panda as a cute vegetarian, there’s another side to this animal.

At the end of 2011, the Chinese news was abuzz with a video that showed a panda in the wild seen chomping down on a the remains of another animal. The hidden camera was operated by infrared technology so that a clear view could be seen inside the dark cave. At the time, scientists hypothesized that the panda was only supplementing its diet by eating animal bones, thereby boosting its body with calcium. This didn’t necessarily prove that pandas are actively hunting and killing other animals with bloodthirsty intent.

Then in February 2013, there was another recorded sighting of a panda going after other animals. A herdsman said a panda had gone after his flock and had snatched away a young lamb. Barred from attacking the panda in any way due to its protected status, the herdsman could only watch as the panda escaped, eventually getting photographed by another person.

And then there was the time in 2011 when a panda snatched up a peacock in its jaws and was photographed at a zoo in Wuhan.

For those crying Photoshop, here’s the video of the panda chewing on animal bones taken by a secret infrared camera:

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