Being a keeper at Wolong Nature Reserve in Sichuan Province comes with its job satisfaction.

You are part of a team that is helping to keep a species alive in the wild. How you go about it may be another matter.

On occasion, workers at the reserve are required to 'dress-up' in panda costumes which are smeared with panda urine and faeces.

This is to make the animals feel more comfortable (although whether they believe they are fellow pandas is another thing).

Staff don the costumes as they coax pandas into cages ahead of their release into the wild.

Giant pandas are considered a national treasure but remain under threat from logging, so this continued help is vital to keep the species going.