In China, it’s panda census time: The last count was a decade ago. Over the next year, teams will fan out in Sichuan, Gansu and Shaanxi provinces to look for the elusive animal or its droppings. The researchers will likely never see a wild panda because they live like hermits and so dislike humans that they would rather starve than cross an inhabited area.
Photo: (top) Researchers Yang Yi, left, and Fan Min use a GPS device to record their location while conducting a panda census in Sichuan province. (bottom) Pandas in Chengdu, Sichuan. Credit: Barbara Demick / Los Angeles Times
“The researchers will likely never see a wild panda because they live like hermits and so dislike humans that they would rather starve than cross an inhabited area.”
Isn’t that something
