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Why Pandas are unlike any other bear  February 5, 2026

 

Rise up sunshine. I'm Coy Wire here with your 10 minutes of news. Hope you are having an awesome, fantastic, phenomenal day.

 

I have a question for you. What is your favorite breed of dog? My family is trying to convince me that we should get one and I'm thinking some big old dog, but they keep showing me these pictures of these teeny tiny Pomeranians and I do not know how I feel about that. Anyways, I was just thinking about this because our lead story today is about a breed of robot dogs.

 

Pomeranian [ˌpɑmǝˈrеnɪǝn] n. 博美狗；博美犬

 

Now we've shown youa lot of videos of robo dogs being introduced at tech shows or being tested in the lab, but today we're getting a look at a new fleet being put into action in the real world, working in forests.

 

This pack is heading out into the wilderness using cameras and lasers to map trees in ways humans maybe never could. Here's how the Oxford Robotics Institute is giving forest management a whole new perspective.

 

They do look and feel very much like robot dogs. When we go to the forest or to the park sometimes just to test the robots, we do attract attention not only of the dog owners, but the dogs themselves. So they tend to come close and then sniff around the robot.

 

Of course, our robots can't understand this yet.

 

So my name is Nived Shebrolu and I'm a senior researcher here at the Oxford Robotics Institute. So this is the antibiotics quadruped.

 

This is a robot platform that we've been using in order to do the forestry mapping. There are about eight cameras on the device which are used for obstacle detection as well as other cameras which are more high resolution for understanding the the trees and the environment around us. Lasers, scanners, as well as inertial measurement units.

 

inertial [ɪnˈɝʃǝl] adj. 惯性的

 

Once we have all this data as the robot is moving, we can stitch together to create a 3D map of the environment.

 

The goal of the DigiForest project was to build digital models of forests using cameras and lasers on a variety of different robot platforms. So with more detailed reconstructions of the forest, we're able to more quickly identify when there is maybe disease or whether a tree is damaged or could be helped or whether it could be harvested for its wood.

 

Forest management has used measuring tapes for over 100 years and this use of quadruped robots will transform the way it's carried out.

 

With this, as the robot is walking, you densely map the entire region so you get a per tree inventory. So we're able to monitor it at a much higher resolution than what we were able to do in the past.

 

So I think we now have a kind of a fully functional system that's able to map a hectare maybe in 20 minutes.

 

So when you have four points of contact, it's naturally stable compared to a humanoid kind of a robot which has two legs. So just energy-wise, it's much more efficient to have a four-legged robot, especially in uneven terrain.

 

The cost of these walking platforms is falling dramatically. They're with longer battery life, with different battery technology. It's an exploratory technology, it's not one you're likely to come across when you go down to the woods today, but you never know.

 

exploratory [ɪkˈsplorǝˌtorɪ] adj. 勘探的；探究的

 

Pop quiz, hot shot.

 

A giant panda's diet consists of almost exclusively what?

 

Tree bark, berries, bamboo, or insects?

 

There is no bamboozling you if you said bamboo. Pandas spend up to 16 hours a day feasting on the woody grass.

 

bamboozle [bæmˈbuzḷ] v. 欺骗，哄骗

 

A full-grown panda can eat up to 100 pounds of bamboo per day.

 

For the first time in decades, there are no giant pandas in Japan. The last pair were sent back to their ancestral home in China.

 

The twin pandas were born in Tokyo, but under Beijing's long-running panda diplomacy program, they still belong to China, and the agreement to send them back reached its deadline.

 

Crowds gathered at the Tokyo Zoo to bid farewell to a pair of four-year-old pandas last week. CNN's Hanako Montgomery reports.

 

bid farewell to 告別……

 

For the first time in half a century, Japan will be panda-less, as its last two cubs, Xiao Xiao and Lele, are leaving for China.

 

I'm really sad. We always said, there's a panda here, so we'll get to see it sometime, and then this happened. I wish I'd come more often.

 

News of the twins' departure has drawn fans from across the country, some waiting hours for a final glimpse. Though they were born in Tokyo in 2021, the cubs were always meant to return this year to their motherland, which loans the bears as goodwill ambassadors and to strengthen trade ties.

 

goodwill [ˈɡʊdˈwɪl] n. 友好，亲善

 

But as tensions between Japan and China deepen, prospects for another panda loan seem increasingly far-fetched.

 

prospect [ˈprɑspɛkt] n. 指望；预期；盼望的事物

 

It feels like such a cute, innocent animal is being used as a trump card or weapon.

 

trump card 有效之谋略；最后手段（王牌）

 

Relations between the two countries are at their lowest point in years, after Japan's Prime Minister, Sanae Takaichi, said in Parliament that a Chinese invasion of Taiwan could trigger a Japanese military response.

 

China, which claims Taiwan as its own, considers the issue a red line, and has responded with a flurry of economic pressure tactics, like cutting flights, warning citizens against traveling to Japan, and suspending seafood imports.

 

flurry [ˈflɝɪ] n. 一阵忙乱（或激动、关注）

 

Now the panda's departure, though pre-planned, feels like yet another blow.

 

Honestly, at the operational level, we don't know if we'll get more pandas, but we hope to continue working with China on conservation and breeding research in the future.

 

Japan first welcomed pandas in 1972 to mark the normalization of ties with China. What followed was decades of panda fever, with a zoo's surrounding neighborhood transformed by tourism and panda-themed merchandise. Tens of millions of dollars are generated each year from the panda economy, according to one economist's estimates.

 

But with no new bear loan in sight, Japan's 50-year chapter of panda diplomacy comes to a close.

 

It's time for a D-D-D-Did You Know? Even though giant pandas eat a prolific amount of bamboo, they can only digest about 17% of it. That is because, despite evolving to be herbivores, they've retained a short digestive track, normally seen in carnivores.

 

prolific [prǝˈlɪfɪk] adj. 丰富的，富饶的；富于……的

herbivore [ˈhɝbǝˌvɔr] n. 食草动物

carnivore [ˈkɑrnǝˌvɔr] n. 食肉动物

 

This, combined with a fiber-rich diet, means pandas are prodigious producers of… excrement. An adult panda can go number two up to 100 times a day, producing dozens of pounds of waste. Talk about Kung Fu Panda.

 

prodigious [prǝˈdɪdʒǝs] adj. 异常的；惊人的

excrement [ˈɛkskrɪmǝnt] n. 排泄物；粪便

 

And that's not their only bizarre bathroom habit. Get this, pandas are also known to urinate while doing a handstand. Yes, this is true.

 

handstand [ˈhændˌstænd] n. 倒立

 

Scientists say the unusual act is actually a technique to mark their territory. The higher the mark, the bigger the panda. Do not try this at home.

 

Paws are tibly enlightening stuff, and teachers, I am sorry for any pandemonium the potty talk has caused.

 

enlightening [ɪnˈlaɪtṇɪŋ] adj. 使人增进知识的；使人获得启发的

pandemonium [ˌpændɪˈmonɪǝm] n. 大混亂

potty [ˈpɑti] n.（儿语）洗手间

 

Today's story, getting a 10 out of 10. A farm dog you have to see to believe, and you won't believe that the dog can't see.

 

Goose arrived on a Pendleton County, Kentucky farm in 2013, and his owner, Ms. Lindy Huffman, says he chose her. He was the very first puppy that came and ran up to me, and he snatched the harness out of my hands and took off with it, and I think in that moment I knew that he was mine, and I was his. So he kind of chose me in that moment.

 

snatch [snætʃ] v. 抓住

 

For more than a decade, Goose has done it all, bringing in cattle, helping during planting season, and keeping a close eye on the greenhouse. That dedication is now earning Goose national attention as one of three finalists for the People's Choice Pup Award.

 

He's been getting a lot of traction. It's not going to his head too bad.

 

traction [ˈtrækʃǝn] n. the act of drawing 

 

go to someone’s head 冲昏（某人）的头脑，使（某人）骄傲自满

 

Now, listen to this. In 2021, Goose was dealing with glaucoma, which began to take his eyesight, forcing Lindy and her husband to make a difficult decision to remove his eyes.

 

glaucoma [ɡlɔˈkomǝ] n. 青光眼

 

We were worried, you know, is he still going to love the same? Is he still going to adventure the same? Is he still going to, you know, farm the same?

 

We'll let Goose show you how it's done. The farm dog phenom still knows his way down the gravel path, knows the pasture, and how to get to the red barn ready for another day of work. Goose is a living testimony that losing something doesn't mean losing your way.

 

phenom [fɪˈnɑm] n.【俚】特出优异的人或物

gravel [ˈɡrævḷ] n. 砂砾，碎石

 

The important thing is to do your best to keep moving forward.

 

All right, superstars, a couple shout outs for you before I send you on your way.

 

First up, Mr. Washington at Riverdale High School in Riverdale, Georgia, thank you for continuing your family's legacy of teaching, and go Raiders!

 

And this shout out goes to Mr. Lytle at Meadow Park Middle School in Beaverton, Oregon, thank you for the kind emails from your students. Rise up!

 

It is almost Friday, everyone, so go out, spread some joy, be a spark of joy, be a spark of kindness, and I'll see you right back here tomorrow. I'm Coy Wire, and we are CNN 10.