The BBC has defended its decision to name a panda among the 12 women in its Faces of 2011 as "a light-hearted addition" to the list.

Sweetie, who is also known as Tian Tian, is one of a pair of pandas newly installed at Edinburgh Zoo.

The animal joins 11 other notable names on the BBC list including shot US Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords, singer Adele and Pauline Pearce - who was dubbed the heroine of Hackney after she was filmed standing up to rioters in north London.

A BBC spokeswoman said: "Including Sweetie (Tian Tian) as one of the annual headline makers was a light-hearted addition to the list, and this isn't the first time it has featured a non-human. In 2009, Benson the Carp, a much-caught giant fish, was August's entry on the male list and last year Peppa the Pig was on the female list for April."

The bears were brought to Scotland from China in the hope that they will produce cubs.

Sweetie's inclusion has caused a stir on micro-blogging site Twitter, with many users suggesting alternative names for "realwomenoftheyear".

One user of the site, who tweets under the name campaigner, wrote: "I'm rather torn over pandagate. These things are never just black or white."

The BBC came under fire last month after its shortlist for the Sports Personality of the Year award did not include any women.

MPs accused the BBC of "ignoring women's achievements" in 2011 by choosing an all-male shortlist.

英國廣播公司(BBC)近日評出2011年度女性榜，按月挑出當月最受關注的女性。上榜的包括大熊貓甜甜，BBC辯護說這是為了給評選結果增添幾分輕松和愉悅。

甜甜是剛在愛丁堡動物園安家的一對熊貓中的一只。

這只熊貓和其他11位赫赫有名的女性一起入選BBC榜單，包括中彈的美國眾議員加布麗埃勒·吉福茲、歌手阿黛爾和寶琳·皮爾斯，皮爾斯在倫敦北部騷亂時勇敢直面暴徒，視頻傳開后被冠以“哈克尼女英雄”的稱號。

BBC的一位女發言人說：“把甜甜列入年度女性榜單是為了增添幾分輕松和愉悅，不過這并不是首次將非人類列入榜單。2009年曾被釣起多次的大鯉魚本森曾是年度男性榜的八月之星，去年粉紅豬小妹也成為年度女性榜的四月之星。”

這兩只熊貓是從中國運到蘇格蘭的，人們希望它們能產下幼崽。

甜甜的入選在推特上引起激辯，許多用戶提名其他女性當選“年度女性”。

用戶“活動家”發表推文說：“我挺糾結‘英國熊貓門’的。這種事情從來不是非黑即白那么簡單。”

BBC上個月因其發布的年度體育人物獎的候選人中無一名女性入圍而遭到炮轟。

該獎的候選人全為男性，國會議員譴責BBC此舉是“無視女性在2011年取得的成就”。

Vocabulary:

cub: 幼獸

torn: 糾結，拿不定主意

under fire: 受到攻擊

shortlist: 供最后挑選用的候選人名單