Everyone knows that the Giant Panda population has been playing a high stakes game of Hide-and-Go-Seek with the world for years now. (Unfortunately, the “hide” part of that phrase has meant something completely different for the bears ever since the Emperor Taizong started giving away pelts to his friends back in the 640’s.) Still, the heavily endangered pandas have done a pretty good job of hiding themselves from environmentalist paparazzi and census takers. Until now, that is. A team of scientists from Britain’s Cardiff University, apparently guided by the age-old philosophical question “Does a bear go in the woods?” combed a reserve for panda droppings, then analyzed the DNA to determine that there were double the number of pandas on the reserve than previously estimated. The study is good news since it means not only that some of the environmental measures instated to help preserve the species over the last two decades are working, but also that there could be close to 3,000 pandas gallivanting about! Click here to read (via CNN).