(upbeat music)
-: Giant pandas have been a symbol of conservation
for over half a century and during this time,
research efforts have improved the status
of giant pandas so much so that we've been able
to down list the species from endangered
to vulnerable status.
However, there's still more work to be done.
Populations have become isolated and fragmented
throughout their natural habitat in China
making it difficult for giant pandas to locate
potential mates during the breeding season.
There's also limited information available
on how giant pandas communicate across
these fragmented landscapes.
Thus, zoos and research institutions,
like Mississippi State University are working
to improve giant panda reproduction
by better understanding what chemical cues they use
to communicate during the breeding season.
Giant pandas are a monoestrous species
meaning that the female is only sexually receptive
once per year during the spring breeding season
and during this time, male and female giant pandas
will scent mark and urinate, leaving chemical cues behind
in order to locate potential mates.
Thus, we hypothesize that female giant panda urine
contains volatile compounds used
to signal sexual receptivity.
In order to test this hypothesis,
we first conducted a series of behavior trials
with male giant pandas housed at San Diego Zoo,
Memphis Zoo, Toronto Zoo, and Zoo Atlanta.
We exposed these male giant pandas
to unknown female estrous urine and non-estrous urine.
We then recorded the amount of time
that these male giant pandas spent investigating
these urine samples, like Lala is showing here
in figure one.
The next step is to extract and identify
those volatile compounds present in the urine samples
that could be eliciting these behavioral responses.
In order to do this, we used a solid phase
micro extraction fiber shown here in the second figure
and then identified and analyzed these samples
using gas chromatography mass spectrometry.
The final step is to relate the changes
in the abundance of these specific compounds
found in the urine samples, denoted by the blue line
here in our final figure, to that amount of time
those male giant pandas spent investigating
those urine samples, shown here by the black bar graph
in our final figure.
When compounds are both high in abundance
and present in those urine samples that elicit
a high male behavioral response, we can start to see
how these may be considered to be pheromones,
and thus signaling sexual receptivity.
By linking chemistry to the behavior of giant pandas,
our research hopes to identify pheromones
that could be used to improve the natural mating conditions
in captivity, and also to potentially connect
those isolated populations in the wild.
Thank you.