A few had panda jewelry. Some drew the black and white bears on their name tags. Others sported attire that one might expect from semifinalists in a contest to become a world panda ambassador, or Pambassador.

Ashley Jaeger, 23, a bioengineering researcher at the National Institutes of Health, had black-and-white panda-colored nails and panda-patterned shoes.

I thought it was fun and kind of something to set me apart, she said.

Jaeger is one of 24 semifinalists one from Brazil, the rest from the United States competing in Washington at the Omni Shoreham Hotel on Tuesday and Wednesday for a chance to spend a year as a global envoy for wildlife conservation.

Four finalists will be selected Wednesday afternoon to spend nearly a month at the Chengdu Panda Base in China, working to introduce the bears into the wild. Later, the four will compete in Chengdu against 12 other finalists from Britain, Singapore and Chinato be named one of three globe-trotting pambassadors.

Those unofficial diplomats will receive a $20,000 stipend which could buy a lot of bamboo in tough economic times and will visit pandas around the world while promoting conservation at the community level. There were 45,000 online applications worldwide for the honor.

The competitions sponsors, the Chengdu Panda Base and the San Francisco-based nonprofit organization WildAid, are using pandas as the adorable public face of wildlife conservation and endangered species. The contest started in 2010, but it did not take place last year.

WildAid Executive Director Peter Knights said that in the conservation business pandas with their cute faces and scruffy fur are far more appealing as spokescreatures than, say, sharks.

A lot of animals dont have that going for them, Knights said. The panda is an icon for many endangered species.

Giant pandas are among the rarest animals in the world, according to the National Zoos Web site. About 1,600 live in the wild. Another 300 are in zoos and breeding centers around the world, mostly in China.

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‘Panda ambassador’ hopefuls compete in D.C.