Recently, staff at the Shaanxi Qinling Giant Panda Research Center captured an interesting scene of a giant panda having its fur "plucked" by a magpie. Why do magpies focus on the hair on giant pandas? Let’s take a look.
In the video, an 11-year-old female giant panda from the Qinling Giant Panda Research Center was lying on a wooden bed and basking in the sun. A magpie looked back and forth around her. When she was not prepared, it pecked at Zhengzheng's leg and took away a lot of the giant panda hair. Zhengzheng lazily got up, moved to a position and continued to lie down, ignoring it.
Not long after, the magpie even called its companions to "pick up" the fur on the giant panda Zhengzheng's body. Now the giant panda got angry and quickly got up and drove away the two magpies. Dong Rong, a forestry engineer at the Qinling Giant Panda Research Center, said that in the video, the phenomenon of magpies "picking up" giant panda hair occurs from time to time.
Dong Rong, a forestry engineer at the Qinling Giant Panda Research Center: For birds, this is a "feather-stealing" behavior. Magpies, for example, breed relatively early, especially in early March every year. The temperature in the frigid or temperate zones is still relatively low in early March. Some inner cushions are used as nest materials in the nest, such as some moss, lichen, and even some animal hair, which has better insulation performance for the nest. It basically has no impact on giant pandas. This is also a way for the two species to get along.