The Last Refuge: One Woman's Glimpse of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge Page #2

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and profitable of zoo animals

The dream has been to breed pandas

in captivity for release into the wild

but arranged matings

produce very few offspring

The result has been a record of more

deaths in captivity than births

Even in a more

natural enclosure

in a Chinese panda reserve

successful reproduction

remains uncertain

A female can conceive

only during a few days each year

In captivity males are

mainly indifferent

in part because they lack

competition and often overweight

Loud love songs frequently lead to

no more than a wrestling match

Even when young are produced

their chances of survival are bleak

In the past three decades

nearly 60 percent have died

within their first year

Despite intense care

this cub would live only five months

So far, it has not been possible to breed

a self-sustaining panda

population in captivity

For the species to survive

protecting it in the wild is critical

But time and habitat

are running out

A panda homeland that once stretched

across southern Asia from

Vietnam to present-day

Beijing has shrunk under human

pressure to only six small

unconnected areas

For about 240 wild pandas

the slopes of the Qin Ling

mountains are a last refuge

By fitting pandas with radio collars

and monitoring their signals

professor Pan and Lu Zhi

have been able

to track the pandas in their

study group from atar...

...and locate them easily

for closer observation

Theirs is an unprecedented bond

between human and panda

Never before have wild pandas wild pandas

become so accustomed to

scientists and allowed them so close

"For nine years in Qin Ling

Lu Zhi and I have lived

among giant pandas

We drink water from the

same small stream with them

and we have stayed together

with them almost everyday

They are familiar

with our scent

These pandas

know us very well

Lone pandas are

often very tolerant

But will a mother be so trusting if they

attempt to visit the

newborn inside the den?

Hoping to conduct a thorough

examination of the panda cub

Professor Pan and Lu Zhi

approach while the mother

feeds some distance

away from the new den.

She has stayed away

so long they now fear the cub

may be dead erasing

a scientific opportunity

and another life in a lineage

where each has become precious

Their fears prove unfounded

Pan knows his time to inspect

the cub is limited

Too long in the den and

despite their efforts to

gain her acceptance

the mother could react violently to

their presence here and attack them

They usually observe

from a distance

but they must sometimes

examine the infant

panda closely to document its growth

It's a female...

an advantage for science

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