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By Caroline Liou* The news from China's Third National Panda Survey is good - there are over 40% more giant pandas in the wild than previously thought. But in addition to gathering valuable new information on panda numbers and habitat, the survey has given nature reserve workers throughout the country important new skills that will strengthen panda conservation. Equipped with an electronic tracking device and a satellite positioning system, Li Xiang Feng and his colleagues covered over 23,000km2 in three years searching for signs of giant pandas (Ailuropoda melanoleuca). They were part of a team of over 170 scientists, field workers, and conservationists who combed the remote and rugged mountains of Sichuan, Shaanxi, and Gansu for China's Third National Panda Survey. Conducted by China's State Forestry Administration and WWF, the survey has revealed some good news - there are nearly 1,600 wild giant pandas living in the wild, over 40% more than previously thought. In addition, the survey discovered pandas living in regions not thought to have the species. Li, the son of a former logger, is very happy with the result. "If it weren't for pandas, I'd have no work," he says.
Li's father used to work for a logging company. After China's nationwide logging ban in 1998, Li went to work for Laoxiancheng Nature Reserve. Located at the southern foot of the Qinling Mountains in Shaanxi Province, Laoxiancheng is one of China's 40 nature reserves that protect giant pandas. But like many of China's protected areas, Laoxiancheng lacked the
necessary resources to adequately monitor wildlife.
"Before the National Survey, we used to do our own monitoring, but it was simple and there was no analysis. We didn't have any equipment," says Li. He and other nature reserve staff underwent ten days of extensive field training to prepare for the survey. This included everything from learning about panda physiology and identifying animals in the wild to using a Global Positioning System (GPS) and basic survival skills. During the survey, Li and a guide would typically start out at 6am to monitor a transect area. Using a satellite tracking system to monitor their position, Li searched for signs of the giant panda and other endangered wildlife. "We found panda traces almost everyday," says Li, "except
for one time when we went almost ten days without spotting any signs
of pandas. So we stopped bathing - we thought that maybe we were
washing our luck away!" Back at the base, technicians reviewed and recorded all the information to form a national Geographic Information System (GIS) database on the extent of panda habitat. One way that technicians identified individual pandas was to measure bamboo shards in droppings carried back by the survey teams: each panda bites bamboo of a particular length, providing a convenient way to identify these elusive creatures. In his almost three years in the field, Li saw a panda only once. Pandas, shy and wary of humans, can smell people coming and quickly run away. "First we saw a panda footprint, then we saw some bamboo that
had recently been chewed by a panda. We followed its trail and came
across a panda nest area, and realized it was very new. So we climbed
a tree and spotted the panda walking away in the distance." Highlights like these were few and far between. Dense bamboo thickets
and rugged terrain made the survey a challenging task, and those
who participated faced hardship and danger. Encounters with leeches,
poisonous snakes, and extreme weather were commonplace. Poaching,
a major threat to pandas, also posed a danger to field workers:
a member of Li's team was killed by a hunter's snare.
But the ability to endure tough work is what bound the team together. "I enjoyed the team camaraderie," says Li. "Working on the survey, I met a lot of people from other nature reserves, and this has helped expand the network of support." One such colleague is Yong Yan Ge. Now the head of the Foping Panda
Nature Reserve research centre in Shaanxi Province, Yong has a reputation
as an old "panda hand" and was a technical consultant
for the Third National Survey Team committee. Yong became involved in panda conservation during the Cultural Revolution, and has been involved in the surveys from the beginning. "In the First National Survey in the 1970s, we were mainly trying to find out where pandas lived," Yong recalls. "So we went around with notepads and asked farmers and hunters where they had seen pandas. There wasn't much technology involved. Sometimes farmers would joke and tell us they saw eight pandas, but that for more money they could find 28! "The Second National Survey in the 1980s was better - we used scientific methodologies." But Yong is much happier with the Third National Survey.
"It wasn't until this survey that we used GPS and GIS," he says. "This survey was well organized and strictly managed. All the people working in the field were trained nature reserve staff." Besides being better trained and equipped, Yong also believes that recent conservation policies such as the Natural Forest Protection Programme (which bans the logging of natural forest) and the Grain-to-Green policy (which aims to restore hillside agricultural lands into forest) are having a positive impact. "This time we surveyed areas that weren't covered in the second survey because of logging companies preventing the teams from going to some areas. With the logging ban in place, habitats will recover. In this survey we found panda traces in areas where we didn't find any before," he says. "But the best thing is that nature reserve staff will be able to do their jobs better in the future. We may not have to do a fourth survey because reserves are now doing their own monitoring and patrolling on a regular basis, and building a network with neighbouring reserves," adds Yong. Li hopes that the regular presence of survey teams in the field will also serve as a deterrent to poachers in the future. After the field work for the National Panda Survey was completed, Li and Yong helped train a monitoring and patrolling team at the Houzhenzi Forest Plantation - the former forest plantation where Li's father used to log trees. This team now undertakes regular monitoring of the former logging base, an important panda corridor between nature reserves that shelter giant pandas. Zhu Dong Feng, a trainee of Li's, is the head of Houzhenzi's new
conservation team. He and the 30 other team members learnt how to
identify wildlife and conduct work in the field, including using
GPS. The training gave him a new insight into wildlife and conservation. "Before, my job was to prevent forest fires and to stop the illegal use of land, but I didn't know anything about wildlife, says Zhu. "When I saw a panda dropping, I used to ignore it. But now I view pandas as a national treasure. I feel it's an honour to manage an area where giant pandas live." (1,104 words) *Caroline Liou is Web and Communications Manager at WWF China
For more information on pandas, the survey, and WWF's Giant Panda
Programme, visit www.wwfchina.org/english/pandacentral/ and www.panda.org/species/panda
For further information: Emma Duncan E-mail: eduncan@wwfint.org
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