Figure 2. Giant panda preferences for artificial sweeteners that taste sweet to humans.

Eight giant pandas were tested behaviorally for their preferences for different concentrations of artificial sweeteners using a two-bowl preference test: one bowl contained a tastant solution (1 L), and the other contained plain water (1 L). All tastant solutions were tested twice, on separate days. Each bar shows the median + interquartile range of the combined amount of a tastant or water consumed during the two separate tests for individual giant pandas: green for the lower concentration of tastant, and blue for the higher concentration (see Table S1 for detailed statistics). Only seven pandas were tested for acesulfame-K. Wilcoxon matched-pairs signed rank tests were performed for every tastant (vs. water). *p<0.05; **p<0.01.