It’s 2011 and that means it’s time for something you have no idea about, so i’ll tell you: PANDA CENSUS. There are about 1500 Pandas alive these days, and the Chinese want to know exactly how many there are. So what do they do? Hire Panda trackers, of course.
The Panda Census, which began in 1970, is conducted every 10 years. According to the AFP, 70 workers are currently being trained as Panda Trackers at the WangLang National Preserve in China’s Sichuan province (where over three-fourths of the Panda population lives).
The trackers will collect droppings for DNA analysis, which will allow zoologists to track individual pandas and estimate the number of the endangered animals living in the wild, the report said.
Maybe it’s me, but you have to be a bit of a badass to run around a forest full of Giant Pandas, collecting their shit for DNA analysis. Right? [AFP via PhysOrg]
P.S.: You know what Pandas have for lunch. They have bamboo.
Image via Shutterstock/Eric Isselée