Panda footprints offer identity clues

Footprints left by giant pandas in the snow can be used by researchers to determine their gender, according to Zhang Hemin, deputy director of the China Conservation and Research Center for the Giant Panda in Sichuan province.

The technology used to determine the gender of wild pandas from footprints in the snow will be especially helpful for monitoring captive pandas that have been reintroduced to the wild, Zhang said on Friday while commenting on research conducted by Duke University in the United States.

The research was done in cooperation with Zhang's center, which has 270 captive pandas - the largest number of captive pandas in the world.