Fecal Near Infrared Spectroscopy to Discriminate Physiological Status in Giant Pandas

Authors

• Erin E. Wiedower, Texas A&M University
• Andrew J. Kouba, Memphis Zoological Society
• Carrie K. Vance, Mississippi State University
• Rachel L. Hansen, Memphis Zoological Society
• Jerry W. Stuth, Texas A&M University
• Douglas R. Tolleson, The University of Arizona

ORCID

AKouba: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9653-9814; CKouba: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8466-6077

MSU Affiliation

College of Agriculture and Life Sciences; Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology

Creation Date

2026-10-30

Abstract

Giant panda (Ailuropoda melanoleuca) monitoring and research often require accurate estimates of population size and density. However, obtaining these estimates has been challenging. Innovative technologies, such as fecal near infrared reflectance spectroscopy (FNIRS), may be used to differentiate between sex, age class, and reproductive status as has been shown for several other species. The objective of this study was to determine if FNIRS could be similarly used for giant panda physiological discriminations. Based on samples from captive animals in four U.S. zoos, FNIRS calibrations correctly identified 78% of samples from adult males, 81% from adult females, 85% from adults, 89% from juveniles, 75% from pregnant and 70% from non-pregnant females. However, diet had an impact on the success of the calibrations. When diet was controlled for plant part such that "leaf only" feces were evaluated, FNIRS calibrations correctly identified 93% of samples from adult males and 95% from adult females. These data show that FNIRS has the potential to differentiate between the sex, age class, and reproductive status in the giant panda and may be applicable for surveying wild populations. © 2012 Wiedower et al.

Keywords

giant pandas, bamboo, pregnancy, diet, near-infrared spectroscopy, leaves, trophic interactions, deer

Publication Date

6-13-2012

Publication Title

PLOS ONE

Publisher

Public Library of Science

Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

Rights

© 2012 Wiedower et al.

Recommended Citation

Wiedower EE, Kouba AJ, Vance CK, Hansen RL, Stuth JW, Tolleson DR (2012) Fecal Near Infrared Spectroscopy to Discriminate Physiological Status in Giant Pandas. PLoS ONE 7(6): e38908. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0038908