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

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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

a Chinese scientist has

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

a newborn panda is found...

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

a threat by other animals...

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

digit ideal for eating bamboo

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

then sleep wherever they are

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

the first long-term study of

wild pandas and their young

With Lu Zhi, former student

and now a research colleague

Pan has long hoped to discover

why panda young

fragile in captivity

seem to thrive in the wild...

This knowledge could

save the species

After years of patient searching

Pan and Lu Zhi now suspect a birth

has occurred in a high den

and set out on a

September morning to investigate

The treacherous slopes of

Qin Ling are like fortress walls...

and perhaps explain why the existence

of giant pandas here was

not confirmed until 1964

A gentle approach...

to glimpse without disturbing

In a cramped cave an adult

female they have tracked closely...

Cradled in her paws

a tiny pink body

Pan will find that a panda mother

devotes herself entirely to her newborn

She holds and soothes

the baby continuously...

neither leaving the den nor

feeding for 25 days

Blind and helpless

the newborn is dwarfed by its mother...

at about four ounces it

weighs only 1/900th as much

Perhaps in part to prevent

an accidental crushing

the infant panda wields a voice

out of all proportion to its body

Professor Pan's hope is that

by studying the baby's needs

he can learn enough to

help avoid misadventures

of the past involving pandas

and human beings

A panda was not seen alive

in the West until 1936

when a cub named Su Lin

was carried to the United States

Though Su Lin would

survive only 18 months

it was love at first sight

The public craved more pandas

and zoos responded

The sudden fad was called

"panda-monium"...

The panda was immediately beloved

but poorly understood...

treated as if the living animal

were itself a child's toy...

...And the toy arrived without

an instruction manual

Keepers could only

guess at its needs

Nearly half died within five years

As a result of our enchantment

one in ten of the world's remaining

pandas lives in captivity today...

among the most popular

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

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