WTF Wednesday: Why Do Male Pandas Handstand When Peeing? (video)
Not really Weird News, but still the most interesting thing on Digg today. Why do Gentleman Pandas pee upside-down? Answer: For the Lady Pandas.
Via the UK’s Daily Mail – video narrated by David Attenborough:
The higher the scent is, the better their personal message spreads, so some clever panda along the evolutionary line began doing a handstand, allowing him to get his pee a little bit higher than any other panda in the forest…
Along with the urine, pandas also secrete ‘anogenital gland secretions’, a waxy substance which indicates the age and sex of the panda to curious observers.
The researchers said: ‘Aiming urine backwards and hitting the target is probably no easy task, particularly when doing a handstand, so selection of larger trees for urine marks probably maximizes the amount of urine that reaches the target.
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