
The Last Refuge: One Woman's Glimpse of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge
- Year:
- 2005
- 16 min
- 12 Views
In remote mountains of central China
moisture borne on the monsoons
nurtures a forest world of isolation...
and mystery
Across ages
bamboo [Poaceae (family)] has flourished
in the persistent mists
erecting nearly impenetrable thickets
barriers against time
and the outside world
For nearly a decade
searched the bamboo
forest for one of the world's
most elusive animals
Though its image is
known to millions
the giant panda
[Ailuropoda melanoleuca] has
kept its life in the wild hidden
from humans
For Professor Pan Wenshi
deciphering the panda's secret
is an urgent matter
The species clings
precariously to existence
Only about
twelve hundred remain
In captivity
pandas have not reproduced enough to
increase or even maintain
their population
If the species is to be saved
we must understand and protect
the secret life of pandas in the wild
Now
an unprecedented opportunity
In a mountain cave
permitting the first
comprehensive film record
and the first long-term
study of a young panda
embarking on a remarkable life unlike
that of any creature on earth
The Qin Ling mountains...
rugged divide between northern
and southern China...
...and one of the last retreats
of the giant panda
Concealed by dense foliage
and its own distinctive color pattern
the panda is literally
hidden here
In the panda's world
nothing is quite what it seems
The clown-like mask elicits
instant human affection
But it's probably seen as
one of the panda's
many subtle defenses
Pandas are shy
and seldom aggressive
When one is seen,
it is usually retreating
They are solitary animals...
rarely together
But they are aware
of each other...
keeping in touch by sound...
and especially scent
Their social lives consist largely
of reading and leaving scent marks
Rubbing its scent glands
on trees and rocks
a panda says "here I am"
or "there I was"
By smell alone
pandas can tell the identity and
sexual mood
of a neighbor who may go unseen
for months
Almost exclusively
giant pandas eat bamboo
Equipped with a unique sixth
pandas have been shaped by evolution
for this life-sustaining activity
They consume up to
eighty pounds of bamboo
[Bashania fargesii and
Fargesia spathacea]
a day with great technique
and efficiency
But they're finicky about
this monotonous diet
They eat different parts of the bamboo
in different seasons
Sometimes they prefer the
tender leaves and shoots
while at other times it's the tough
woody stems they crave
It's a lot of word for little reward...
only about 17 percent is digested
So pandas must eat relentlessly
up to 14 hours a day
They eat till they're full
until they awaken... hungry again
But young pandas
are the exception
To survive they must learn
about the world... they must play
Seemingly vulnerable
the panda has endured while other more
formidable mammals have
become extinct
Its margin of safety is narrow...
but for millions of years
it has been sufficient
Yet an understanding of how
the wild panda survives
has been as elusive as the animal itself
To unlock the panda's secrets
a former logging camp called Shashuping
now serves as a research station
From this base,
biology professor Pan Wenshi
and his students monitor
more than sixty pandas
in the surrounding forest
With Lu Zhi, former student
and now a research colleague
Pan has long hoped to discover
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"The Last Refuge: One Woman's Glimpse of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge" Scripts.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2021. Web. 22 Jan. 2021. <https://www.scripts.com/script/the_last_refuge:_one_woman's_glimpse_of_the_arctic_national_wildlife_refuge_14535>.