Scientists Dress Up as Giant Pandas

Published January 08, 2015

(Reuters)

A researcher dressed in a panda costume puts a panda cub into a box before its physical examination at the Hetaoping Research and Conservation Center for the Giant Panda in Wolong National Nature Reserve, Sichuan province, Dec. 3. The 4-month old cub, the first in the centre to be trained for reintroduction into the wild, is monitored by hidden cameras. (Stringer Shanghai / Reuters)

Scientists in China are playing dress up in a bid to help the nation's pandas.

New photos show the scientists in the country's Sichuan Province dressed as giant pandas as they perform a physical exam on a 4-month-old panda.

They dressed up as pandas to try to keep human influence on the endangered animals to a minimum, according to London's Daily Mail. The panda costumes ensure that the cub's environment is devoid of human influence -- China's latest efforts to conserve the critically endangered animal, whose numbers total an estimated 3,000 in the wild.

The scientists plan on one day releasing the cub to the wild as part of China's panda conservation efforts.