|
National Geographic Giant Pandas The Last Refuge
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In remote mountains of central China |
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moisture borne on the monsoons |
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nurtures a forest world of isolation... |
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and mystery |
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Across ages |
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bamboo [Poaceae (family)] has flourished |
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erecting nearly impenetrable thickets |
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barriers against time |
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For nearly a decade |
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a Chinese scientist has |
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forest for one of the world's |
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Though its image is |
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the giant panda |
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kept its life in the wild hidden |
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For Professor Pan Wenshi |
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deciphering the panda's secret |
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The species clings |
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Only about |
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In captivity |
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pandas have not reproduced enough to |
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increase or even maintain |
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If the species is to be saved |
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we must understand and protect |
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the secret life of pandas in the wild |
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Now |
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In a mountain cave |
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a newborn panda is found... |
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permitting the first |
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and the first long-term |
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embarking on a remarkable life unlike |
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that of any creature on earth |
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The Qin Ling mountains... |
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rugged divide between northern |
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...and one of the last retreats |
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Concealed by dense foliage |
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the panda is literally |
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In the panda's world |
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The clown-like mask elicits |
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But it's probably seen as |
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one of the panda's |
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Pandas are shy |
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When one is seen, |
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They are solitary animals... |
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But they are aware |
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keeping in touch by sound... |
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Their social lives consist largely |
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of reading and leaving scent marks |
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Rubbing its scent glands |
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a panda says "here I am" |
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By smell alone |
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pandas can tell the identity and |
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of a neighbor who may go unseen |
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Almost exclusively |
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Equipped with a unique sixth |
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pandas have been shaped by evolution |
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for this life-sustaining activity |
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They consume up to |
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[Bashania fargesii and |
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a day with great technique |
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But they're finicky about |
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They eat different parts of the bamboo |
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Sometimes they prefer the |
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while at other times it's the tough |
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It's a lot of word for little reward... |
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only about 17 percent is digested |
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So pandas must eat relentlessly |
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They eat till they're full |
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then sleep wherever they are |
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But young pandas |
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To survive they must learn |
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Seemingly vulnerable |
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the panda has endured while other more |
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formidable mammals have |
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Its margin of safety is narrow... |
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but for millions of years |
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Yet an understanding of how |
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has been as elusive as the animal itself |
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To unlock the panda's secrets |
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a former logging camp called Shashuping |
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now serves as a research station |
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From this base, |
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biology professor Pan Wenshi |
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more than sixty pandas |
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the first long-term study of |
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With Lu Zhi, former student |
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Pan has long hoped to discover |
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fragile in captivity |
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This knowledge could |
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After years of patient searching |
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Pan and Lu Zhi now suspect a birth |
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and set out on a |
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The treacherous slopes of |
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and perhaps explain why the existence |
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of giant pandas here was |
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A gentle approach... |
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In a cramped cave an adult |
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Cradled in her paws |
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Pan will find that a panda mother |
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devotes herself entirely to her newborn |
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She holds and soothes |
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neither leaving the den nor |
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Blind and helpless |
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at about four ounces it |
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Perhaps in part to prevent |
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the infant panda wields a voice |
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Professor Pan's hope is that |
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he can learn enough to |
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of the past involving pandas |
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A panda was not seen alive |
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when a cub named Su Lin |
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Though Su Lin would |
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it was love at first sight |
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The public craved more pandas |
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The sudden fad was called |
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The panda was immediately beloved |
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but poorly understood... |
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treated as if the living animal |
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...And the toy arrived without |
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Keepers could only |
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Nearly half died within five years |
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As a result of our enchantment |
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one in ten of the world's remaining |
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pandas lives in captivity today... |
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among the most popular |
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The dream has been to breed pandas |
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in captivity for release into the wild |
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but arranged matings |
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The result has been a record of more |
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Even in a more |
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in a Chinese panda reserve |
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successful reproduction |
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A female can conceive |
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In captivity males are |
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in part because they lack |
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Loud love songs frequently lead to |
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Even when young are produced |
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their chances of survival are bleak |
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In the past three decades |
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nearly 60 percent have died |
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Despite intense care |
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So far, it has not been possible to breed |
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a self-sustaining panda |
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For the species to survive |
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But time and habitat |
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A panda homeland that once stretched |
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across southern Asia from |
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Beijing has shrunk under human |
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unconnected areas |
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For about 240 wild pandas |
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the slopes of the Qin Ling |
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By fitting pandas with radio collars |
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professor Pan and Lu Zhi |
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to track the pandas in their |
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...and locate them easily |
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Theirs is an unprecedented bond |
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Never before have wild pandas wild pandas |
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become so accustomed to |
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"For nine years in Qin Ling |
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Lu Zhi and I have lived |
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We drink water from the |
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and we have stayed together |
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They are familiar |
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These pandas |
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Lone pandas are |
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But will a mother be so trusting if they |
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attempt to visit the |
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Hoping to conduct a thorough |
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Professor Pan and Lu Zhi |
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feeds some distance |
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She has stayed away |
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may be dead erasing |
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and another life in a lineage |
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Their fears prove unfounded |
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Pan knows his time to inspect |
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Too long in the den and |
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despite their efforts to |
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the mother could react violently to |
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their presence here and attack them |
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They usually observe |
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but they must sometimes |
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panda closely to document its growth |
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It's a female... |
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In the years to come |
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she may bear cubs of her own |
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permitting study of |
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At seven weeks |
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Her eyes are |
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Her expanding repertoire of |
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still browsing nearby |
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Pan is heartened by what he finds |
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with a stomach full of mother's milk |
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Time is up |
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The baby must be returned quickly |
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In the weeks to come |
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Pan and Lu Zhi make |
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When her cub is weeks old |
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a wild mother leaves it to |
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In the past |
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this natural behavior was |
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and many cubs were |
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only to die later in human care |
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This all began with a boyhood dream |
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of adventure in |
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"When I was in high school |
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I read Jack London's books |
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Among the books, |
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"White Fang" |
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Form then on |
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I dreamed of living in remote areas like |
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western America or Alaska |
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Living in the wild |
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that was my early dream |
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The years have turned early |
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Pan spends months of each year |
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paying some research expenses |
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working late hours |
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in a tiny cubicle that |
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Pan's other world offers |
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The rest of the year |
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sprawling symbol of |
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Here Pan is a biology professor |
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His work was mainly |
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and the panda had their |
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"Um, after graduating |
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when I was 25years old, |
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I had the opportunity to |
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um, to go visit |
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um, the Beijing Zoo |
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where they had the first |
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And that was the first time |
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and it was very interesting |
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The baby panda |
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and that was when |
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devote my whole |
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At a zoo in the ancient capital |
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city of Xi'an |
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Her name is Dan-Dan... |
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a reference to her reddish-brown |
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She is one of only three |
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Pan and Lu Zhi think |
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a throwback to prehistoric times |
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Pandas may have developed their black |
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and-white coloration |
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Finding Dan-Dan ill |
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Pan and Lu Zhi brought her |
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hoping she would be |
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Her confinement |
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who was himself |
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Sixties during the Cultural Revolution |
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"The Cultural Revolution |
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No one dared to |
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Because I told the truth |
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they put me in jail |
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beat me and pulled my hair |
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I thought: |
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is to insist |
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After 56 days of beatings and |
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"Overcoming this |
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basis for my conviction as |
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In a Beijing classroom |
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Pan carries his campaign on behalf of |
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pandas to a |
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Using props made from the skins |
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Pan teaches about the |
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His stories evoke surprise |
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The children thought pandas |
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Pan wants to inspire understanding |
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that will probably |
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In a country to nearly |
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with urgent human needs |
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Even some friends cannot understand |
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and family several times a year |
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the trip south to the Qin Ling mountains |
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22 hours by train |
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For Pan, this journey retraces |
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the panda before advancing waves of human settlements |
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The last stands of wilderness |
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like the last pandas |
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at the highest edges of existence |
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For years, Professor Pan |
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But they have now attracted |
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who staff the Qin Ling research |
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To Pan, they hold promise that the |
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And they have been |
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an adventure that has |
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"There were many difficulties |
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We always felt cold |
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Lu Zhi got frostbite |
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and Ding Qian had |
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Mid-December |
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Four months |
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birthing season |
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Cubs are now old enough to |
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and are sometimes |
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while their mothers |
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Face to face with humans, |
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the cub seems by turns |
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To symbolize her importance |
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the two researchers have decided to |
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name her Xi Wang-meaning "Hope" |
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The christening |
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who may sleep 20 hours a day |
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even when guests are present |
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Easy slumber |
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Nearby, her mother unwinds from |
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Xi Wang seems vulnerable |
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But animal predators pose |
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A panda pelt can bring poachers |
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and dozens of panda cubs have |
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by well meaning |
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or wanted to believe |
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Xi Wang is still nursing |
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which will dominate her life |
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A surprise... |
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The mother returns |
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Xi Wang to a new den |
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But for Pan and Lu Zhi |
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Despite years of observation |
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they have seldom seen two pandas |
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even mother and young |
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Touched by her devotion |
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they call the mother Jiao-Jiao |
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In Pan's study area |
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only one farm has persevered in the |
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harsh altitudes of panda territory |
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En route back |
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who count themselves |
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Pan has heard reports that a panda |
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It behaved as though ill |
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Have the Lis seen it? |
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They have, |
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and were surprised to encounter |
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In a chill are rain at |
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Professor Pan and his team are |
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Villagers have sent word that a wild |
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panda has appeared on a doorstep |
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Pan thinks it may be |
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The scientists are puzzled |
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wild pandas to come to human dwellings when ill... |
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an enigma in a creature |
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Though they are neighbors |
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few in the village have |
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Beneath corn [Zea mays] dried |
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the creature huddles |
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The animal appears old |
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Pan asks if the panda |
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It has not |
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The man discovered it whimpering... |
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Suspecting a digestive problem |
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Pan decides to treat the |
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It proves no easy task to relocate |
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At Shashuping research station |
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therapy begins with |
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Weighing the old panda's good |
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the students call him |
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Already, his appetite is returning... |
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Antibiotics and vitamins mixed in honey |
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meal quickly revive Lucky's spirit |
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In ancient texts |
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a creature believed to be the panda was |
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known as "the iron-eating beast" |
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...because it chewed up |
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...and it still tries to |
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Lucky, it turns out, has |
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and an indiscriminate palate |
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Eventually |
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to retrieve this unusual delicacy |
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In Shashuping's field lab |
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Lu Zhi adds samples |
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growing collection from |
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Through genetic analysis |
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she seeks to learn how much |
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In a hundred years, she fears all |
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Qin Ling pandas could |
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This could cause extinction through |
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harmful mutations and |
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"There is a critical question: |
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then how much and |
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This work, we hope |
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and then we'll find |
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Recovered after |
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Lucky is ready |
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Pan is hopeful |
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but the scientists know Lucky |
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may be too old to |
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Weeks later |
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Again ill |
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Lucky will be taken |
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where he will die |
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In the bitter cold |
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while other Qin Ling animals |
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Enslaved by the need to |
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pandas continue to |
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Pan and Lu Zhi have learned to respect |
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the panda's tough constitution |
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Thick, oily fur and bulky |
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and they seem immune |
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For Xi Wang, snow is just |
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Now a five-month-old toddler |
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she seems dimly aware |
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In the months to come |
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they will offer her only safety from |
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predators in her mother's absence |
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But to hide in a tree |
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Xi Wang must |
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For now, baffled by the challenge |
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For those who would study pandas |
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winter in the Qin Ling |
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The cold is relentless... |
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Days and nights pass |
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a dwelling heated only by wood fire |
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lit only by candle and lantern |
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As winter drags on |
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Jiao-Jiao begins to take Xi Wang |
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The ancient Chinese |
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in such scenes of tranquility |
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According to one account |
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retiring armies waved not a |
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For Xi Wang |
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Success brings not only safety |
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As winter gives way to spring |
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the panda's realm |
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reawakens with sound and color |
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By may |
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At nine months |
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she continues to nurse |
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but |
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like human babies |
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she investigates |
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For Jiao-Jiao |
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spring brings not only the |
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but the seasonal agony of ticks |
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and leeches [Hirudinea (class)] |
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Xi Wang will watch her mother from |
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until she's ready to join her |
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Once tentative, |
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sometimes showing greater |
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Jiao-Jiao seems concerned |
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especially when succulent |
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For both, life is serene |
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They look awkward |
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but pandas are deceptively agile |
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their joints so flexible |
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and perform gymnastic routines |
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Clear-cut harvesting |
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is the paramount threat |
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Food and cover dwindle |
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Populations are further isolated |
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Panda ranges have |
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only two decades... |
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A billion people in China need |
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In fifty years |
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Over the years |
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Professor Pan has |
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invade 70 percent |
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He asks how far the |
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Next spring, they will cut |
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the slopes now roamed |
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To penetrate the panda's forest |
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new roads must be blasted |
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By most standards |
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the operations are crude |
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sometimes conducted |
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that mixes gun powder with cigarettes |
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Industrial safety is a recent |
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but despite accidents |
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the work goes on relentlessly |
| 00:44:20 |
Risking all |
| 00:44:22 |
Pan has pleaded with authorities |
| 00:44:25 |
With stubborn insistence |
| 00:44:27 |
despite threats and harassment |
| 00:44:29 |
he has succeeded |
| 00:44:31 |
The government has halted the timber |
| 00:44:33 |
cutting in the |
| 00:44:46 |
An excursion to check |
| 00:44:48 |
now outfitted with a radio collar... |
| 00:44:54 |
It is mid-October |
| 00:44:55 |
At fourteen months |
| 00:44:57 |
Xi Wang is passing |
| 00:45:08 |
Something is amiss |
| 00:45:10 |
The signals lead to |
| 00:45:13 |
Expecting Xi Wang |
| 00:45:26 |
Pan believes Jiao-Jiao tore the |
| 00:45:37 |
He suggests they search |
| 00:45:42 |
But Jiao-Jiao's signal is weak... |
| 00:45:44 |
...They will have to separate |
| 00:46:02 |
Xi Wang is invaluable to science |
| 00:46:04 |
She has been monitored since birth |
| 00:46:06 |
and has provided |
| 00:46:10 |
But for Pan and his crew |
| 00:46:32 |
Following his instincts |
| 00:46:34 |
Pan comes to a steep ravine... |
| 00:46:37 |
Barely visible among the foliage |
| 00:46:39 |
sitting casually in a tree |
| 00:46:41 |
the familiar shape of Xi Wang |
| 00:47:08 |
To re-establish contact |
| 00:47:10 |
they must sedate |
| 00:47:15 |
They must act now |
| 00:47:18 |
But her perch above a cliff |
| 00:47:24 |
The tranquilizing |
| 00:47:27 |
the pain to be inflicted slight |
| 00:47:29 |
But the moment is |
| 00:47:33 |
whose lives are dedicated |
| 00:47:50 |
Several minutes pass as |
| 00:47:54 |
They pray she won't fall |
| 00:48:04 |
Now docile |
| 00:48:06 |
Xi Wang stays in the tree |
| 00:48:07 |
enabling them to bring |
| 00:48:30 |
At 80 pounds |
| 00:48:37 |
The professor |
| 00:48:41 |
a father of two daughters |
| 00:48:43 |
bears her as carefully |
| 00:49:00 |
Using radio collars |
| 00:49:01 |
Pan and Lu Zhi have been able |
| 00:49:06 |
and activity of more than |
| 00:49:10 |
Theirs is the first |
| 00:49:13 |
social and breeding |
| 00:49:18 |
These periodic |
| 00:49:21 |
for Xi Wang and rob her of dignity |
| 00:49:23 |
But she is contributing |
| 00:49:27 |
that can be obtained in no other way |
| 00:49:47 |
Xi Wang's story could affect |
| 00:49:50 |
revealing how to ensure |
| 00:49:53 |
and to improve their |
| 00:50:07 |
For Xi Wang it has been |
| 00:50:10 |
and a close encounter |
| 00:50:30 |
She returns to her mother |
| 00:50:34 |
now interested only |
| 00:50:37 |
soon perhaps, a little bamboo |
| 00:50:55 |
At the Shashuping research station, |
| 00:50:58 |
After months of work |
| 00:51:00 |
four of Pan's students |
| 00:51:15 |
Assistants will come |
| 00:51:18 |
but Pan intends to stay |
| 00:51:21 |
understand the life |
| 00:51:24 |
and to keep them roaming freely |
| 00:51:36 |
In the ritual exercise |
| 00:51:38 |
Pan daily rekindles |
| 00:51:48 |
"My friends in Beijing always ask: |
| 00:51:53 |
"...in the field |
| 00:51:55 |
When will it end? |
| 00:51:56 |
Your work has been published |
| 00:51:57 |
Why don't you stop? |
| 00:51:59 |
I tell them: "My goal |
| 00:52:02 |
and to establish |
| 00:52:05 |
That is my mission |
| 00:52:10 |
Achieving this goal may |
| 00:52:13 |
And even that may |
| 00:52:22 |
So one man perseveres |
| 00:52:24 |
as solitary as his pandas |
| 00:52:26 |
a lonely figure in this |
| 00:52:29 |
One man and one panda |
| 00:52:34 |
Since these scenes |
| 00:52:37 |
Xi Wang has struck |
| 00:52:39 |
In the not too distant future |
| 00:52:40 |
she could have a cub herself |
| 00:52:45 |
As pandas have for |
| 00:52:48 |
she will feast on the forest |
| 00:52:51 |
drink from cold streams |
| 00:52:53 |
endure the chilly mists |
| 00:52:56 |
But her passage though life |
| 00:53:00 |
because, like her name |
| 00:53:01 |
Xi Wang represents |
| 00:53:05 |
a last fateful glimmer of hope |
