【Watch Exotic Forbidden Pleasures Online】

We finally know why pandas are Watch Exotic Forbidden Pleasures Onlineblack and white.

It has nothing to do with them being so very, very cute — instead, its meant to make pandas look tough, according to a new study.

SEE ALSO: One Tokyo restaurant's success and failure is decided by pandas having sex

Pandas are one of the few mammals that don't have coloring that matches their environment. They're a study in contrasts, with black fur that matches dark forests and white fur for snow-filled landscapes.

A team of researchers from UC Davis and California State University, Long Beach, wanted to know the adaptive significance of those colors. (They're the same team who figured out zebras have black and white stripes to keep away blood-sucking flies.)

Mashable Light Speed Want more out-of-this world tech, space and science stories? Sign up for Mashable's weekly Light Speed newsletter. By clicking Sign Me Up, you confirm you are 16+ and agree to our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. Thanks for signing up!

Credit: Paula Bronstein/Getty Images

They found that the panda's white face, neck, belly, backside and rump (their word) help blend into a snowy scene. But the dark markings around their eyes and ears stand out in a snowy environment.

That's because, according to the study published last week in Behavioral Ecology, those dark spots and markings are meant to show predators like snow leopards and jackals they are indeed a bear and should be feared as such, or as the scientists said, "signaling intent about ferocity." Those dark eyes may also help other bears identify the creature as a fellow bear.

While many theories exist for the specific and consistent coloring of pandas, the black parts don't appear to be involved in helping the mammals regulate temperature, obscure the animal's shape or reduce eye glare, the researchers found.

Now if we could solve the mystery of what makes these animals so adorable.

---

Featured Video For You

---

These tattoos conduct electricity, turning you into a very basic cyborg

---

Topics Animals

• Science
• Digital Culture
• Entertainment
• Deals
• Tech
• Games
• Social Good
• Life

• Old-School Organizing in the Heartland
• Waze offers carpool rides through its app like Uber, Lyft but for less
• Obama: Trump 'unfit' to be president
• Google launches Pixel 3 and Pixel 3 XL and, yes, there are notches
• No Filter
• Mailman and big dog share a heartwarming daily routine
• Google officially unveils its new Chromecast streaming media device
• Waymo hits 10 million self
• Blood Will Out
• How to learn sign language: 9 apps and resources to teach yourself ASL

• Twitch should be worried about Game Broadcasting for Windows 10
• These illustrated affirmations will brighten any of your bad days
• Woman writes bad Yelp review because of a bodega cat, and the internet destroys her
• Tokyo Comic
• Family gives sick dog the best last day ever
• A teenager is suing websites for making fun of his mullet with memes
• Tributes paid to Dreamworld victims, as it's revealed two children survived
• How Singapore companies are offering apartment viewings in VR
• iPhone 8 might come in three different sizes
• 'Keeping Up With the Kardashians' resumes production following Kim's Paris robbery

• The Garbage Man
• Taylor Swift urges people to vote after sweeping up the American Music Awards
• Taylor Swift urges people to vote after sweeping up the American Music Awards
• China is capable of destroying Bitcoin, new research suggests
• Control-Alt-Fail
• Little Caesars was caught with a shopping cart full of DiGiorno
• Ariana Grande goes to great lengths to wear her high ponytail with a hat
• Taylor Swift shared a video of her cat so we guess everything's back to normal
• The Queer Art of Failing Better
• Disney partners with YouTubers LaurDIY, Meredith Foster and Jaleesa Moses for fashion travel show

• Bafflersplainer: Win the Future
• Twitter reacts to 'racist' political cartoon in Australian newspaper
• Google will change rule that let apps scrape your Gmail inbox
• Chrissy Teigen can now filter out your mean Instagram comments
• I Still Know What You Did Last Summer
• McDonald's worker calls out 'order 69', gets predictably glorious response
• Millennial women are waiting longer to have sex, reversing Gen X trend
• Donald Trump once warned of a madman obtaining nukes. Now many fear he is that madman.
• New Atheism’s Idiot Heirs
• Obama: Trump 'unfit' to be president