Pandas try pumpkins in breeding base

Serving pumpkins first started last Halloween. Most pandas treated the new additions as containers and searched for apples and buns hidden inside. Only a few pandas thought to try the pumpkins out as food.

The new snacks prolonged the eating time of pandas and made them take more exercise, base chief Zhang Zhihe said.

In addition to pumpkins, pandas in the base have tried novel food like kiwi fruit and cantaloupe, he said.