Giant pandas living in one of China’s most protected nature reserves have been found to seek out the company of other pandas far more than previously thought, according to research using tracking technology rarely permitted on the endangered species.

The findings emerged from a two-year study conducted at the Wolong Nature Reserve in southwestern China, where researchers from Michigan State University’s Center for Systems Integration and Sustainability monitored five bears between 2010 and 2012 using GPS collar technology.

What made the project possible was an unusual decision by the Chinese government, which had banned the use of GPS collars on giant pandas for more than a decade, to grant researchers a temporary exemption. That access proved transformative.

“Once we got all the information in the computer system we could see where they go and map it,” said Vanessa Hull, a research associate involved in the study. “It was so fascinating to sit down and watch their whole year unfold before you like a tiny window into their world.”

The five subjects — adult females Pan Pan, Mei Mei, and Zhong Zhong, younger female Long Long, and male Chuan Chuan — were captured, fitted with collars, and monitored across the full study period. Researchers were able to map daily movements in a level of detail that had simply never been achievable before.

Three of the pandas spent several consecutive weeks occupying overlapping sections of forest, a pattern that runs counter to the long-held view of pandas as almost entirely solitary animals. The male, Chuan Chuan, was particularly notable — he regularly spent time near the females well outside the spring mating season, a behaviour that challenged existing assumptions.

The study also revealed something unexpected about how pandas manage their food sources. The animals were found to return to specific feeding locations up to six months after first visiting them, suggesting a level of spatial memory researchers had not previously documented.

“They pretty much sit down and eat their way out of an area, but then need to move on to the next place,” Hull said.

Despite the encouraging findings, giant pandas remain at risk. Earlier government survey data recorded just 1,596 individuals living in the wild, and populations in regions such as the southern Minshan and Daxiangling mountains continue to face serious threats. While overall numbers have been gradually recovering, conservationists caution that the species remains vulnerable.

Researchers say the data gathered through the GPS programme will directly inform future conservation planning, particularly efforts to protect and connect panda habitats across fragmented mountain terrain.