But at crucial stages in their lives pandas, like all solitary mammals, are forced to spend time with each others. In spring males and females must seek each other out in order to mate. And in autumn the females give birth to a single cub which will be their constant companion for the next 18 months or more. Giant pandas generally avoid contacting with each other in the wild. In their dense habitat their coat may help make animals conspicuous to each other and prevent them from surprising themselves by approaching too close to another of their own kind.
Pandas signify aggression by lowering their heads and staring at their opponents.
To signal submissiveness, a panda will put its head between its front legs, often hind its eye-patches with its paws. At close range aggression is signaled by a swipe with a paw, or by a low-pitched growl or bark that will send an opponent scampering up the nearest tree.