Staff of the Giant Panda National Park in southwest China's Sichuan Province have recently retrieved some infrared videos of wild giant pandas. 

In the footage, a wild giant panda stood upside down to rub against the hair trap on the tree trunk. It's normal for giant pandas to mark their territory by rubbing secretions from their anal glands onto tree trunks. The hairbrush was eventually taken off by the panda and became its toy. 

A hair trap is an important tool for collecting DNA that is then used in scientific research. DNA extracted from hair is often more stable and easier to analyze than DNA extracted from feces. The hair trap was used in a program carried out by the Wanglang area of the Giant Panda National Park and Duke Kunshan University. 

(Cover photo via screenshot)

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