Giant panda lets good times roll on snow-capped mountain slope

A wild giant panda was caught on camera recently rolling around in the snow at a nature reserve in northwest China's Gansu Province, with the furry bear seemingly enjoying coating itself in an outer layer of the white stuff.

Infrared camera footage shows the playful panda not shying away from cold winter weather as it joyfully rolled around on a snow-capped slope at the Gansu Baishuijiang National Nature Reserve under China's Giant Panda National Park, almost like a doll dipped in icing sugar.

Forest rangers at the reserve have captured many adorable moments of wild giant pandas on infrared cameras. Conservation staff say the widely-applied infrared cameras in the Baishuijiang reserve, which delivers real-time footage of wild animals, have also helped to significantly support research work into the various wildlife species and their inhabiting environment in recent years.

Located in the southern part of Gansu, the Baishuijiang reserve covers around 180,000 hectares and is home to many rare animal species, including giant pandas, golden snub-nosed monkeys and takins.

In 2017, China established the giant panda pilot national park, which covers four areas in the Sichuan, Shaanxi and Gansu provinces, totaling more than 27,000 square km, to help synergize preservation efforts.

The Baishuijiang reserve is included among one of the four main areas of the pilot national park. The fourth national giant panda census, released in 2015, showed Gansu was home to 132 wild giant pandas, of which 110 were living in the Baishuijiang reserve.