Scientists have investigated the calls of big pandas - and it's now now not good information for animals in seek of a date.
Pandas can identify each other from their sheep-like bleats at a distance of as a lot as 20 metres, read found.
But they will merely decipher the sex of a energy mate inside the occasion that they are a lot now now not as lots as 10 metres away.
In contrast, animals residence on the open savannah, equivalent to African elephants, can speak over distances of 1km.
Researchers recorded the bleats of big pandas, then investigated how far the sounds travelled in dense bamboo thickets.
Distances over which selected consumer animals would possibly be recognised
Giant panda 10-20 metres
African elephant 400 - 1,000 metres
Borneo orangutan - 300 metres
Koala - as a lot as 50 metres.
Source: Charlton and colleagues, Scientific Reports.
They found that inside the ordinary bamboo forest habitat, the iconic animals can realize each other's sex and identity, but merely over quickly distances.
"Our findings mean that virtually all acoustic communication does genuinely take area over very quickly distances (10-20 m) once friends have been located," said Benjamin Charlton of San Diego Zoo's Institute for Conservation Research.
Mating game
The findings, printed inside the journal, Scientific Reports, would possibly help shed new light on the breeding habits of big pandas.
The work would possibly also help conservationists estimate population levels by way of capability of recording vocal activity made during the breeding season.
Mating and breeding would possibly be difficult affairs for the big panda. The iconic animals live a mainly solitary life, and encounters are rare outside the brief mating season.
Scent can provide away information equivalent to size, sex, identification and hormonal state. But pandas also have a vocal repertoire that is really important during the breeding season.
The big panda is listed as prone to extinction, with a lot now now not as lots as 2,000 people thought to live inside the wild. Artificial insemination is used in captivity, the function the animals are usually reluctant to breed.