Giant pandas are one of the world’s more popular animals. They are also rapidly disappearing. According to a new report by the Chinese Government, only 1,864 of the animals remain in the wild.

Recently, a team of researchers from Michigan State University (MSU) had the rare opportunity to stalk five of the animals, using GPS collars. Now they have finished creating months of data, marking the comings and goings of the famous bears and have compiled their findings for this months edition of the Journal of Mammalogy.

“Pandas are such an elusive species and it’s very hard to observe them in wild, so we haven’t had a good picture of where they are from one day to the next. Once we got all the data in the computer we could see where they go and map it. It was so fascinating to sit down and watch their whole year unfold before you like a little window into their world.“ said Vanessa Hull, a research associate at MSU’s Center for Systems Integration and Sustainability (CSIS) in a statement.

“This was a great opportunity to get a peek into the panda’s secretive society that has been closed off to us in the past,” added Jindong Zhang, a co-author on the paper and postdoctoral researcher at CSIS.

The researchers studied three female adults named Pan Pan, Mei Mei and Zhong Zhong along with a younger female named Long Long and a male called Chuan Chuan in the Oolong Nature Reserve in southwest China. Using GPS they followed the animals every move from 2010 until 2012.

By the time the research was complete, the team had compiled what is probably the most complete picture of pandas lives to date. This is the first time that the Chinese government has allowed GPS to be used to track the animals. Where there have been many studies involving pandas, observing them without actually being present in the area ensures that the animals behave as naturally as possible.

One of the study’s most surprising findings was that the animals appear to be far more social than anticipated. Panda bears are generally considered to be “loners” however three of the bears in the group gathered in the same part of the forest at the same time for weeks at a time, outside of the usual mating season.

“We can see it clearly wasn’t just a fluke, we could see they were in the same locations, which we never would have expected for that length of time and at that time of year,” said Hull.

“This might be evidence that pandas are not as solitary as once widely believed,” added Zhang.

The team also found that the male panda travelled across a larger area than any of the females. The researchers believe that this was, primarily, so the females would know that he was around and to leave his scent in case there was competition in the area.

According to Hull, new insight was gained into the animals’ feeding strategy as well. While many animals have a core area of their range that they inhabit most frequently and decent, the pandas have 20 to 30 core areas.

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

Pandas feed almost exclusively on bamboo. The pandas seem to remember where good bamboo can be found and return to those places even after absences of up to six months in the hope of finding new growth.

The fragmentation of their habitat along with climate change have put giant pandas at risk of extinction.

The IUCN Red List states that, “there seems to be little doubt that there are less than 2,500 mature giant pandas in the wild; additionally each population is believed to have less than 250 mature individuals. At least until recently there has been a general population decline, although there is hope that this has been reversed by general habitat improvements — nevertheless, this remains an uncertainty.”

The MSU researchers hope that by better understanding the habits and lifestyle of the giant pandas, efforts to preserve the species can be improved.