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The Internet loves pandas - wherever a video with the cute, black and white giant teddy bear appears, the number of clicks is guaranteed.
But it's really too cute how they munch bamboo, sleep or move around in somersaults.
However, there is also a peculiarity of bears that nobody finds really amiable: especially in winter, pandas like to rub themselves with the excrement of horses.
It must stink badly.
Why do the cute animals do that?
The zoologist Fuwen Wei from the Chinese Academy of Sciences had been asking himself exactly this question for a long time.
Therefore, he dedicated a research paper to this phenomenon, which he published in the journal "Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences".
Before we get to the bottom of this exciting question, you can also go to the zoologists and first make your assumptions:
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The “wellness treatment” with horse manure has a real benefit for the pandas
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The strange behavior of the bamboo eaters is unusual in that other mammals tend to refrain from anything that has to do with feces, urine and the like.
Some species even lose body weight after long exposure to the smell.
Sounds logical, because ultimately there can be pathogens or parasites in the excretions.
Only insects have a weakness for excrement.
They sometimes use them to lay their eggs in them.
It took Professor Wei ten years to figure out the panda ritual.
To do this, he observed the animals in the central Chinese nature reserve Quin-Ling.
About 38 times a year he and his team were able to see the pandas smearing themselves with horse manure.
Most of them sniffed it carefully at first, then rubbed the manure on their cheeks and then all over their bodies.
Weis' team noticed: The bears used the horse manure especially in the cold months between November and April.
Every time the temperatures were below 15 degrees Celsius.
The behavior was most often observed when temperatures approached freezing.
The animals also preferred very fresh manure.
This means that some scents that the pandas seem appealing will go away pretty quickly.
These are mainly the essential oils beta-caryophyllene (BCP) and caryophyllene oxide (BCPO).
They are found in many plants such as basil, cinnamon, hops, but also in cannabis.
Does the horse manure have a warming function for the pandas?
Source: Unsplash.com/Bruce Hong
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To check whether it was really these substances that pandas found cool on horse manure, the researchers sprayed the chemical compounds on hay and waited for the animals to react.
Lo and behold: you were drawn to it.
Wei's theory: Could it be that BCP and BCPO have a warming effect for the pandas?
To find out, Wei couldn't of course imprison a few dozen pandas.
That's why he dared a series of tests on mice to check whether they show a similar reaction.
The mice were given BCP and BCPO.
Now you should move back and forth between a warm and a cold plate.
The treated rodents ventured onto the cold plate much more frequently than the control group, which had not received the oils.
They also huddled less on the hot plate.
In another study, the researchers found that the two essential oils interact with the cold receptor TRPM8 - much like when you munch on a hot chilli pepper.
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Although panda bears have one of the thickest skins in the animal kingdom to protect themselves against the winter cold, they also take advantage of the warmth effect from horse manure.
As the only known species of mammal on our planet so far.
So pandas are not only cute, but also smart.