Panda preview

I can't wait to hear about the groups trip to the Giant Panda research center!

When I asked my daughter what she was most excited about seeing in  China, she replied immediately, "Pandas." Giant pandas are a powerful symbol of China, as is discussed in this blog post "Defending Chinese Culture and Kung Fu Panda."

First, baby panda cuteness.


Giant panda males are filmed in the wild by David Attenborough for the BBC, as they mark their territory. Pandas live solitary lives in the wild:


This great National Geographic documentary "Young Explorers: Secrets of the Wild Panda" gives a lot of detail about how pandas live in the wild, (see the whole thing here).
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It has proven very difficult for pandas in captivity to breed or for their babies to survive their first year.  Their wild habitat has been so degraded by human expansion that  one in ten pandas now lives in captivity, as various places attempt to breed pandas in captivity in ways that might ensure their survival. All pandas on loan from China, and any of their offspring, must be returned to China eventually.

The biologist Professor Pan Wenshi has dedicated himself to studying pandas in the wild, and his research has been very important for improving the care of pandas in captivity with the hopes of releasing more pandas into the wild.

The baby panda is born about the size of a stick of butter, naked and blind. Within three weeks its eyes will open and it gains weight rapidly. One discovery from studying baby pandas in the wild is that the mother will leave the cub for hours to feed on bamboo; this was mistakenly interpreted as abandonment, and cubs were taken from the mothers, but did not thrive. Now, zoos have better understanding of how mothers care for cubs, and some zoos that have more successfully raised cubs recently include the Smithsonian, Atlanta, San Diego, Madrid, and zoos in Thailand and Japan.

Pan Wenshi's work has shown that habitat conservation is crucial to panda survival. His own imprisonment during the Cultural Revolution has shaped his drive to study pandas in the wild. He also showed how species conservation is directly linked to alleviating human poverty in a region to relieve pressure on habitat. In addition to pandas, Prof. Pan has contributed to the conservation of other species such as langurs and dolphins.