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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
in the persistenet mists

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erecting nearly impenetrable thickets

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barriers against time
and the outside world

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For nearly a decade

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a Chinese scientist has
searched the bamboo

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forest for one of the world's
most elusive animals

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Though its image is
known to millions

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the giant panda
{Ailuropoda melanoleuca}has

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kept its life in the wild hidden
from humans

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For Professor Pan Wenshi

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deciphering the panda's secret
is an urgent matter

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The species clings
precariously to existence

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Only about
twelve hundred remain

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In captivity

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pandas have not reproduced enough to

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increase or even maintain
their population

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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
an unprecedented opportunity

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In a mountain cave

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a newborn panda is found...

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permitting the first
comprehensive film record

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and the first long-term
study of a young panda

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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
and southern China...

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...and one of the last retreats
of the giant panda

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Concealed by dense foliage
and its own distinctive color pattern

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the panda is literally
hidden here

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In the panda's world
nothing is quite what it seems

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The clown-like mask elicits
instant human affection

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But it's probably seen as
a threat by other animals...

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one of the panda's
many subtle defenses

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Pandas are shy
and seldom aggressive

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When one is seen,
it is usually retreating

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They are solitary animals...
rarely together

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But they are aware
of each other...

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keeping in touch by sound...
and especially scent

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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
on trees and rocks

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a panda says "here I am"
or "there I was"

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By smell alone

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pandas can tell the identity and
sexual mood

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of a neighbor who may go unseen
for months

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Almost exclusively
giant pandas eat bamboo

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Equipped with a unique sixth
digit ideal for eating bamboo

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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
eighty pounds of bamboo

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(Bashania fargesii and
Fargesia spathacea)

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A day wity great technique
and efficiency

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But they're finicky about
this monotonous diet

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They eat different parts of the bamboo
in different seasons

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Sometimes they prefer the
tender leaves and shoots

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while at other times it's the tough
woody stems they crave

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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
up to 14 hours a day

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They eat till they're full

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then sleep wherever they are
until they awaken... hungry again

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But young pandas
are the exception

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To survive they must learn
about the world... they must play

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Seemingly vulnerable

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the panda has endured while other more

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formidable mammals have
become extinct

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lts margin of safety is narrow...

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but for millions of years
it has been sufficient

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Yet an understanding of how
the wild panda survives

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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
and his students monitor

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more than sixty pandas
in the surrounding forest

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the first long-term study of
wild pandas and their young

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With Lu Zhi, former student
and now a research colleague

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Pan has long hoped to discover
why panda young

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fragile in captivity
seem to thrive in the wild...

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This knowledge could
save the species

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After years of patient searching

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Pan and Lu Zhi now suspect a birth
has occurred in a high den

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and set out on a
September morning to investigate

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The treacherous slopes of
Qin Ling are like fortress walls...

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and perhaps explain why the existence

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of giant pandas here was
not confirmed until 1964

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A gentle approach...
to glimpse without disturbing

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In a cramped cave an adult
female they have tracked closely...

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Cradled in her paws
a tiny pink body

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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
the baby continuously...

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neither leaving the den nor
feeding for 25 days

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Blind and helpless
the newborn is dwarfed by its mother...

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at about four ounces it
weighs only 1/900th as much

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Perhaps in part to prevent
an accidental crushing

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the infant panda wields a voice
out of all proportion to its body

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Professor Pan's hope is that
by studying the baby's needs

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he can learn enough to
help avoid misadventures

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of the past involving pandas
and human beings

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A panda was not seen alive
in the West until 1936

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when a cub named Su Lin
was carried to the United States

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Though Su Lin would
survive only 18 months

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it was love at first sight

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The public craved more pandas
and zoos responded

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The sudden fad was called
"panda-monium"...

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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
were itself a child's toy...

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...And the toy arrived without
an instruction manual

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Keepers could only
guess at its needs

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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
and profitable of zoo animals

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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
produce very few offspring

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The result has been a record of more
deaths in captivity than births

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Even in a more
natural enclosure

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in a Chinese panda reserve

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successful reproduction
remains uncertain

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A female can conceive
only during a few days each year

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In captivity males are
mainly indifferent

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in part because they lack
competition and often overweight

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Loud love songs frequently lead to
no more than a wrestling match

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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
within their first year

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Despite intense care
this cub would live only five months

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So far, it has not been possible to breed

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a self-sustaining panda
population in captivity

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For the species to survive
protecting it in the wild is critical

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But time and habitat
are running out

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A panda homeland that once stretched

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across southern Asia from
Vietnam to present-day

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Beijing has shrunk under human
pressure to only six small

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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
mountains are a last refuge

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By fitting pandas with radio collars
and monitoring their signals

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professor Pan and Lu Zhi
have been able

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to track the pandas in their
study group from atar...

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...and locate them easily
for closer observation

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Theirs is an unprecedented bond
between human and panda

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Never before have wild pandas wild pandas

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become so accustomed to
scientists and allowed them so close

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"For nine years in Qin Ling

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Lu Zhi and I have lived
among giant pandas

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We drink water from the
same small stream with them

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and we have stayed together
with them almost everyday

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They are familiar
with our scent

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These pandas
know us very well

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Lone pandas are
often very tolerant

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But will a mother be so trusting if they

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attempt to visit the
newborn inside the den?

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Hoping to conduct a thorough
examination of the panda cub

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Professor Pan and Lu Zhi
approach while the mother

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feeds some distance
away from the new den.

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She has stayed away
so long they now fear the cub

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may be dead erasing
a scientific opportunity

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and another life in a lineage
where each has become precious

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Their fears prove unfounded

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Pan knows his time to inspect
the cub is limited

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Too long in the den and

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despite their efforts to
gain her acceptance

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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
from a distance

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but they must sometimes
examine the infant

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panda closely to document its growth

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It's a female...
an advantage for science

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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
a panda family across generations

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At seven weeks
the baby weighs more than three pounds

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Her eyes are
opening on the world

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Her expanding repertoire of
sounds could alarm her mother

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still browsing nearby

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Pan is heartened by what he finds
the cub appears normal and fit

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with a stomach full of mother's milk
and a strong heartbeat

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Time is up

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The baby must be returned quickly
to avoid a confrontation

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In the weeks to come

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Pan and Lu Zhi make
an important observation

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When her cub is weeks old

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a wild mother leaves it to
feed for hours at a time

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00:17:47,900 --> 00:17:48,832
In the past

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this natural behavior was
often though abandonment

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and many cubs were
taken from their mothers

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only to die later in human care

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00:18:09,822 --> 00:18:12,188
This all began with a boyhood dream

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of adventure in
a far away exotic land...

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"When I was in high school

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00:18:20,265 --> 00:18:21,960
I read Jack London's books

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00:18:22,167 --> 00:18:25,864
Among the books,
two greatly impressed me

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00:18:26,105 --> 00:18:30,098
"White Fang"
and"The Call of the Wild"

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Form then on

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00:18:35,047 --> 00:18:37,345
I dreamed of living in remote areas like

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00:18:37,583 --> 00:18:41,246
western America or Alaska
or the Yukon River Valley...

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00:18:41,487 --> 00:18:44,047
Living in the wild
and among wild animals...

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00:18:44,289 --> 00:18:48,191
that was my early dream
and I hoped to make it my future

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00:18:56,201 --> 00:19:00,160
The years have turned early
fascination to enduring devotion

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00:19:00,539 --> 00:19:03,997
Pan spends months of each year
in primitive conditions

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00:19:04,243 --> 00:19:07,303
paying some research expenses
out of his own pocket

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00:19:07,546 --> 00:19:10,447
working late hours
to log and analyze data

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00:19:10,682 --> 00:19:13,947
in a tiny cubicle that
is both office and bedroom

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00:19:26,398 --> 00:19:28,832
Pan's other world offers
a stark contrast

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The rest of the year
he spends in Beijing

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00:19:32,571 --> 00:19:35,506
sprawling symbol of
modern industrial China

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00:19:36,842 --> 00:19:40,369
Here Pan is a biology professor
at Beijing University

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00:19:41,046 --> 00:19:43,981
His work was mainly
in the laboratory until he

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00:19:44,183 --> 00:19:47,380
and the panda had their
first fateful encounter

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"Um, after graduating
from college

225
00:20:11,410 --> 00:20:12,809
when I was 25years old,

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00:20:13,045 --> 00:20:15,240
I had the opportunity to

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00:20:15,480 --> 00:20:17,675
um, to go visit

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00:20:17,916 --> 00:20:19,281
um, the Beijing Zoo

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00:20:19,518 --> 00:20:23,511
where they had the first
captive-born baby panda

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And that was the first time
that I was able to hold a panda

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and it was very interesting

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00:20:30,362 --> 00:20:32,262
The baby panda
climbed all over me

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00:20:32,497 --> 00:20:35,022
and that was when
I decided I wanted to

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00:20:35,267 --> 00:20:37,462
devote my whole
life to studying the pandas"

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At a zoo in the ancient capital

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city of Xi'an
a visit to a friend...

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Her name is Dan-Dan...

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00:20:48,313 --> 00:20:51,111
a reference to her reddish-brown
and-white coloration

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00:20:51,683 --> 00:20:54,811
She is one of only three
such pandas they know of

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00:20:56,989 --> 00:20:59,685
Pan and Lu Zhi think
this color scheme may be

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00:20:59,925 --> 00:21:01,790
a throwback to prehistoric times

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00:21:02,461 --> 00:21:04,622
Pandas may have developed their black

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00:21:04,863 --> 00:21:07,991
and-white coloration
as camouflage during the ice ages

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00:21:10,168 --> 00:21:12,363
Finding Dan-Dan ill
in the wild

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00:21:12,604 --> 00:21:16,005
Pan and Lu Zhi brought her
here for temporary care

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00:21:16,174 --> 00:21:18,005
hoping she would be
released later

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00:21:18,844 --> 00:21:21,005
Her confinement
disturbed Pan

248
00:21:21,213 --> 00:21:23,613
who was himself
held prisoner in the late

249
00:21:23,849 --> 00:21:25,783
Sixties during the Cultural Revolution

250
00:21:34,893 --> 00:21:37,123
"The Cultural Revolution
was a big mess

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00:21:37,362 --> 00:21:39,125
No one dared to
speak the truth

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Because I told the truth

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00:21:41,166 --> 00:21:42,098
they put me in jail

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00:21:42,334 --> 00:21:44,165
beat me and pulled my hair

255
00:21:44,403 --> 00:21:46,064
I thought:
The only thing I can do

256
00:21:46,305 --> 00:21:48,637
is to insist
on seeking the truth..."

257
00:21:49,808 --> 00:21:55,337
After 56 days of beatings and
confinement in darkness, Pan escaped

258
00:21:56,348 --> 00:21:59,181
"Overcoming this
suffering has become the

259
00:21:59,418 --> 00:22:03,787
basis for my conviction as
a scientist always to tell the truth"

260
00:22:07,259 --> 00:22:08,590
In a Beijing classroom

261
00:22:08,827 --> 00:22:11,193
Pan carries his campaign on behalf of

262
00:22:11,430 --> 00:22:13,728
pandas to a
wildly receptive audience

263
00:22:17,836 --> 00:22:22,102
Using props made from the skins
of pandas who died in captivity

264
00:22:22,374 --> 00:22:25,775
Pan teaches about the
need to protect wild pandas

265
00:22:39,224 --> 00:22:41,021
His stories evoke surprise

266
00:22:41,560 --> 00:22:44,358
The children thought pandas
lived only in zoos

267
00:22:48,600 --> 00:22:53,162
Pan wants to inspire understanding
of wild pandas in the generation

268
00:22:53,405 --> 00:22:55,100
that will probably
decide their fate

269
00:22:57,809 --> 00:23:01,074
In a country to nearly
1.2 billion people

270
00:23:01,313 --> 00:23:04,749
with urgent human needs
he faces a long road

271
00:23:08,253 --> 00:23:11,984
Even some friends cannot understand
why he leaves his home

272
00:23:12,224 --> 00:23:16,024
and family several times a year
for the sake of a wild animal

273
00:23:40,285 --> 00:23:44,381
the trip south to the Qin Ling mountains
is itself a test of resolve

274
00:23:44,890 --> 00:23:49,327
22 hours by train
then 14 hours by bus

275
00:24:09,781 --> 00:24:13,808
For Pan, this journey retraces
the ancient retreat

276
00:24:14,052 --> 00:24:17,351
the panda before advancing waves of human settlem

277
00:24:19,424 --> 00:24:21,153
The last stands of wilderness

278
00:24:21,393 --> 00:24:25,853
like the last pandas
survive only where food crops cannot...

279
00:24:26,865 --> 00:24:29,561
at the highest edges of existence

280
00:24:32,804 --> 00:24:37,366
For years, Professor Pan
and Lu Zhi conducted a lonely enterprise

281
00:24:37,676 --> 00:24:40,509
But they have now attracted
a following of students

282
00:24:40,745 --> 00:24:44,078
who staff the Qin Ling research
station in seasonal shifts

283
00:24:59,631 --> 00:25:03,567
To Pan, they hold promise that the
panda will not be forgotten

284
00:25:04,002 --> 00:25:07,699
And they have been
staunch companions in

285
00:25:08,006 --> 00:25:09,473
an adventure that has
sometimes been an ordeal

286
00:25:12,644 --> 00:25:15,340
"There were many difficulties
when we started this research

287
00:25:15,580 --> 00:25:19,243
We always felt cold
and clothes were always wet

288
00:25:20,685 --> 00:25:22,812
Lu Zhi got frostbite
on her face

289
00:25:23,054 --> 00:25:25,648
and Ding Qian had
frostbitten fingers

290
00:25:40,605 --> 00:25:41,765
Mid-December

291
00:25:42,340 --> 00:25:44,433
Four months
have passed since the

292
00:25:44,676 --> 00:25:47,042
birthing season
among Qin Ling pandas

293
00:25:47,345 --> 00:25:50,246
Cubs are now old enough to
crawl from their dens

294
00:25:50,482 --> 00:25:52,347
and are sometimes
found outside

295
00:25:52,584 --> 00:25:54,711
while their mothers
browse nearby

296
00:26:03,128 --> 00:26:04,823
Face to face with humans,

297
00:26:05,063 --> 00:26:09,727
the cub seems by turns
reticent and full of bravado

298
00:26:34,025 --> 00:26:37,085
To symbolize her importance
for the future of pandas

299
00:26:37,329 --> 00:26:39,297
the two researchers have decided to

300
00:26:39,531 --> 00:26:41,999
name her Xi Wang-meaning "Hope"

301
00:26:43,702 --> 00:26:46,227
The christening
is of no interest to a baby

302
00:26:46,471 --> 00:26:48,029
who may sleep 20 hours a day

303
00:26:48,273 --> 00:26:50,241
even when guests are present

304
00:26:55,246 --> 00:26:58,010
Easy slumber
is a panda trait

305
00:26:58,350 --> 00:27:02,480
Nearby, her mother unwinds from
the labors of eating bamboo

306
00:27:11,997 --> 00:27:14,261
Xi Wang seems vulnerable

307
00:27:14,499 --> 00:27:17,957
But animal predators pose
less of a threat than humans

308
00:27:18,436 --> 00:27:22,338
A panda pelt can bring poachers
more than $10,000

309
00:27:22,574 --> 00:27:25,873
and dozens of panda cubs have
been taken into captivity

310
00:27:26,111 --> 00:27:28,602
by well meaning
"rescuers"who believed

311
00:27:28,847 --> 00:27:31,714
or wanted to believe
that they had been abandoned.

312
00:27:37,022 --> 00:27:39,547
Xi Wang is still nursing
so bamboo

313
00:27:39,791 --> 00:27:43,852
which will dominate her life
is for now just a plaything

314
00:28:01,479 --> 00:28:02,138
A surprise...

315
00:28:04,049 --> 00:28:06,415
The mother returns
and decides to move

316
00:28:06,651 --> 00:28:09,984
Xi Wang to a new den
a routine occurrence

317
00:28:10,221 --> 00:28:12,951
But for Pan and Lu Zhi
it's a rare moment

318
00:28:14,392 --> 00:28:16,360
Despite years of observation

319
00:28:16,594 --> 00:28:18,152
they have seldom seen two pandas

320
00:28:18,396 --> 00:28:21,160
even mother and young
together in the open

321
00:28:26,371 --> 00:28:27,963
Touched by her devotion

322
00:28:28,139 --> 00:28:32,007
they call the mother Jiao-Jiao
or "Double Charming"

323
00:28:35,647 --> 00:28:37,740
In Pan's study area

324
00:28:38,016 --> 00:28:39,483
only one farm has persevered in the

325
00:28:39,718 --> 00:28:42,346
harsh altitudes of panda territory

326
00:28:43,021 --> 00:28:46,354
En route back
the two scientists visit the Li family

327
00:28:46,591 --> 00:28:49,185
who count themselves
protectors of the pandas

328
00:28:53,765 --> 00:28:57,701
Pan has heard reports that a panda
has been sighted in the vicinity

329
00:28:57,936 --> 00:28:59,836
It behaved as though ill

330
00:29:00,038 --> 00:29:01,528
Have the Lis seen it?

331
00:29:14,786 --> 00:29:16,253
They have,
by the river

332
00:29:16,654 --> 00:29:20,283
and were surprised to encounter
one so far down the mountain

333
00:29:23,661 --> 00:29:26,630
In a chill are rain at
one in the morning

334
00:29:26,865 --> 00:29:29,766
Professor Pan and his team are
summoned on a special mission...

335
00:29:33,738 --> 00:29:36,036
Villagers have sent word that a wild

336
00:29:36,274 --> 00:29:38,139
panda has appeared on a doorstep

337
00:29:38,443 --> 00:29:41,606
Pan thinks it may be
the animal seen by the Lis

338
00:29:43,882 --> 00:29:46,680
The scientists are puzzled
by a tendency of

339
00:29:46,918 --> 00:29:49,978
wild pandas to come to human dwellings when ill...

340
00:29:50,288 --> 00:29:53,223
an enigma in a creature
normally so withdrawn

341
00:29:56,060 --> 00:29:58,255
Though they are neighbors
of wild pandas

342
00:29:58,496 --> 00:30:00,487
few in the village have
ever seen one

343
00:30:02,333 --> 00:30:05,769
Beneath corn {Zea mays} dried
for hog {Suidae(family)}feed

344
00:30:06,004 --> 00:30:07,631
the creature huddles
as if seeking help

345
00:30:07,872 --> 00:30:09,271
The animal appears old

346
00:30:33,331 --> 00:30:35,731
Pan asks if the panda
has been fed

347
00:30:36,067 --> 00:30:36,897
It has not

348
00:30:37,802 --> 00:30:43,763
The man discovered it whimpering...
...and he was amazed

349
00:30:51,115 --> 00:30:53,310
Suspecting a digestive problem

350
00:30:53,651 --> 00:30:56,677
Pan decides to treat the
panda back at camp

351
00:31:01,359 --> 00:31:05,125
It proves no easy task to relocate
the 200-pound creature

352
00:31:17,742 --> 00:31:19,403
At Shashuping research station

353
00:31:19,644 --> 00:31:21,805
therapy begins with
a breakfast of bamboo

354
00:31:25,683 --> 00:31:28,880
Weighing the old panda's good
fortune at being rescued

355
00:31:29,120 --> 00:31:32,146
the students call him
by a name that means"Lucky"

356
00:31:36,527 --> 00:31:38,791
Already, his appetite is returning...

357
00:31:42,834 --> 00:31:45,769
Antibiotics and vitamins mixed in honey

358
00:31:46,070 --> 00:31:48,038
meal quickly revive Lucky's spirit

359
00:31:49,307 --> 00:31:50,331
In ancient texts

360
00:31:50,575 --> 00:31:53,043
a creature believed to be the panda was

361
00:31:53,211 --> 00:31:55,270
known as "the iron-eating beast"

362
00:31:57,615 --> 00:32:00,083
...because it chewed up
metal cooking utensils

363
00:32:00,385 --> 00:32:01,875
...and it still tries to

364
00:32:13,531 --> 00:32:16,728
Lucky, it turns out, has
an unruly curiosity

365
00:32:17,035 --> 00:32:19,003
and an indiscriminate palate

366
00:32:26,544 --> 00:32:30,071
Eventually
the cautious researchers manage

367
00:32:30,315 --> 00:32:32,476
to retrieve this unusual delicacy

368
00:32:38,189 --> 00:32:39,918
In Shashuping's field lab

369
00:32:40,158 --> 00:32:42,820
Lu Zhi adds samples
of Lucky's blood to a

370
00:32:43,061 --> 00:32:46,030
growing collection from
pandas living in isolated groups

371
00:32:51,469 --> 00:32:52,800
Through genetic analysis

372
00:32:53,071 --> 00:32:55,665
she seeks to learn how much
inbreeding has occurred

373
00:32:56,374 --> 00:32:58,706
In a hundred years, she fears all

374
00:32:58,943 --> 00:33:01,275
Qin Ling pandas could
be first cousins

375
00:33:01,913 --> 00:33:04,473
This could cause extinction through

376
00:33:04,716 --> 00:33:07,583
harmful mutations and
vulnerability to disease

377
00:33:07,819 --> 00:33:12,984
"There is a critical question:
If this animal is inbreeding

378
00:33:13,191 --> 00:33:18,322
then how much and
how bad the inbreeding could be

379
00:33:18,830 --> 00:33:22,357
This work, we hope
will answer this question

380
00:33:22,600 --> 00:33:27,799
and then we'll find
a way to help pandas"

381
00:33:33,511 --> 00:33:35,843
Recovered after
a week of treatment

382
00:33:36,080 --> 00:33:37,604
Lucky is ready
to be released...

383
00:33:46,791 --> 00:33:48,088
Pan is hopeful

384
00:33:48,326 --> 00:33:51,022
but the scientists know Lucky

385
00:33:51,229 --> 00:33:53,254
may be too old to
survive in the wild

386
00:34:02,407 --> 00:34:05,171
Weeks later
their fears will be confirmed

387
00:34:05,543 --> 00:34:06,601
Again ill

388
00:34:06,844 --> 00:34:08,709
Lucky will be taken
to a feeding center

389
00:34:09,013 --> 00:34:10,537
where he will die

390
00:34:21,025 --> 00:34:23,459
In the bitter cold
of early January

391
00:34:23,694 --> 00:34:27,460
while other Qin Ling animals
hibernate the panda cannot

392
00:34:29,333 --> 00:34:32,700
Enslaved by the need to
eat almost perpetually

393
00:34:32,937 --> 00:34:35,804
pandas continue to
roam the frozen forest

394
00:34:48,653 --> 00:34:51,417
Pan and Lu Zhi have learned to respect

395
00:34:51,656 --> 00:34:53,021
the panda's tough constitution

396
00:34:53,758 --> 00:34:57,250
Thick, oily fur and bulky
bodies insulate them

397
00:34:57,495 --> 00:34:59,190
and they seem immune
to the cold

398
00:34:59,997 --> 00:35:03,433
For Xi Wang, snow is just
a new terrain to explore

399
00:35:26,157 --> 00:35:27,784
Now a five-month-old toddler

400
00:35:28,025 --> 00:35:31,791
she seems dimly aware
that trees are important

401
00:35:32,396 --> 00:35:33,385
In the months to come

402
00:35:33,631 --> 00:35:35,189
they will offer her only safety from

403
00:35:35,433 --> 00:35:37,560
predators in her mother's absence

404
00:35:42,240 --> 00:35:43,764
But to hide in a tree

405
00:35:44,041 --> 00:35:46,100
Xi Wang must
first learn to climb it

406
00:35:57,054 --> 00:36:00,114
For now, baffled by the challenge
she gives up

407
00:36:09,100 --> 00:36:10,863
For those who would study pandas

408
00:36:11,102 --> 00:36:13,866
winter in the Qin Ling
mountains is a test of resolve...

409
00:36:15,273 --> 00:36:18,504
The cold is relentless...
even inside

410
00:36:26,984 --> 00:36:30,317
Days and nights pass
in the shared chores of

411
00:36:30,555 --> 00:36:32,785
a dwelling heated only by wood fire

412
00:36:33,024 --> 00:36:35,185
lit only by candle and lantern

413
00:37:16,534 --> 00:37:17,865
As winter drags on

414
00:37:18,102 --> 00:37:21,435
Jiao-Jiao begins to take Xi Wang
with her while foraging

415
00:37:23,841 --> 00:37:25,809
The ancient Chinese
may have found

416
00:37:26,043 --> 00:37:28,841
in such scenes of tranquility
a symbol of peace

417
00:37:29,447 --> 00:37:30,778
According to one account

418
00:37:31,015 --> 00:37:35,645
retiring armies waved not a
white flag but an image of a panda

419
00:37:40,024 --> 00:37:42,686
For Xi Wang
another attempt to climb

420
00:37:46,797 --> 00:37:51,234
Success brings not only safety
but a measure of youthful adventure

421
00:38:47,758 --> 00:38:49,248
As winter gives way to spring

422
00:38:49,694 --> 00:38:51,992
the panda's realm
in the Qin Ling mountains

423
00:38:52,229 --> 00:38:54,493
reawakens with sound and color

424
00:39:04,842 --> 00:39:07,936
By may
the new foliage intrigues Xi Wang

425
00:39:08,512 --> 00:39:10,173
At nine months

426
00:39:10,414 --> 00:39:12,245
she continues to nurse

427
00:39:12,483 --> 00:39:13,643
but

428
00:39:13,884 --> 00:39:14,816
like human babies

429
00:39:15,052 --> 00:39:16,644
she investigates
the world with her mouth

430
00:39:23,694 --> 00:39:24,786
For Jiao-Jiao

431
00:39:25,029 --> 00:39:27,862
spring brings not only the
bamboo shoots she treasures

432
00:39:28,099 --> 00:39:31,068
but the seasonal agony of ticks
{Metastigmata(suborder)}

433
00:39:31,302 --> 00:39:32,428
and leeches {Hirudinea(class)}

434
00:39:41,479 --> 00:39:44,971
Xi Wang will watch her mother from
the trees another four months

435
00:39:45,182 --> 00:39:48,811
until she's ready to join her
foraging along the forest floor

436
00:39:57,595 --> 00:40:00,894
Once tentative,
she now climbs about freely

437
00:40:01,132 --> 00:40:04,260
sometimes showing greater
daring than judgement

438
00:40:20,751 --> 00:40:24,152
Jiao-Jiao seems concerned
about a well-padded youngster

439
00:40:24,388 --> 00:40:27,551
especially when succulent
bamboo shoots are abundant

440
00:40:38,402 --> 00:40:40,097
For both, life is serene

441
00:41:01,525 --> 00:41:02,389
They look awkward

442
00:41:02,626 --> 00:41:04,594
but pandas are deceptively agile

443
00:41:04,862 --> 00:41:08,195
their joints so flexible
they can bite their own tails

444
00:41:08,432 --> 00:41:12,630
and perform gymnastic routines
in suspenseful slow motion

445
00:41:55,846 --> 00:41:58,280
Clear-cut harvesting
of the panda's forests

446
00:41:58,482 --> 00:42:01,212
is the paramount threat
to their continued existence

447
00:42:02,119 --> 00:42:03,984
Food and cover dwindle

448
00:42:04,321 --> 00:42:06,312
Populations are further isolated

449
00:42:09,326 --> 00:42:11,590
Panda ranges have
declined by half in

450
00:42:11,829 --> 00:42:15,196
only two decades...
primarily from logging

451
00:42:27,945 --> 00:42:32,348
A billion people in China need
wood for homes and heat

452
00:42:32,583 --> 00:42:35,575
In fifty years
it could be almost two billion

453
00:42:36,353 --> 00:42:38,082
Over the years

454
00:42:38,322 --> 00:42:40,654
Professor Pan has
watched timber companies

455
00:42:40,891 --> 00:42:43,359
invade 70 percent
of Qin Ling's panda habitat

456
00:42:54,738 --> 00:42:57,764
He asks how far the
loggers intend to go

457
00:42:59,843 --> 00:43:02,277
Next spring, they will cut
all the way over the mountains

458
00:43:02,513 --> 00:43:05,448
the slopes now roamed
by Jiao-Jiao and Xi Wang

459
00:43:10,020 --> 00:43:12,488
To penetrate the panda's forest

460
00:43:12,690 --> 00:43:14,988
new roads must be blasted
out of the mountainside

461
00:43:32,443 --> 00:43:33,603
By most standards

462
00:43:33,844 --> 00:43:35,141
the operations are crude

463
00:43:35,379 --> 00:43:38,007
sometimes conductecd
with a casual daring

464
00:43:38,182 --> 00:43:40,707
that mixes gun powder with cigarettes

465
00:43:44,054 --> 00:43:46,716
Industrial safety is a recent
development here

466
00:43:46,957 --> 00:43:48,049
but despite accidents

467
00:43:48,292 --> 00:43:50,317
the work goes on relentlessly

468
00:44:20,524 --> 00:44:22,151
Risking all

469
00:44:22,393 --> 00:44:25,487
Pan has pleaded with authorities
to stop the logging of Qin Ling

470
00:44:25,929 --> 00:44:27,396
With stubborn insistence

471
00:44:27,631 --> 00:44:29,531
despite threats and harassment

472
00:44:29,767 --> 00:44:30,756
he has succeeded

473
00:44:31,468 --> 00:44:33,663
The government has halted the timber

474
00:44:33,904 --> 00:44:36,771
cutting in the
125-square-mile study area

475
00:44:46,383 --> 00:44:48,578
An excursion to check
on Xi Wang

476
00:44:48,819 --> 00:44:51,014
now outfitted with a radio collar...

477
00:44:54,358 --> 00:44:55,450
It is mid-October

478
00:44:55,893 --> 00:44:57,087
At fourteen months

479
00:44:57,327 --> 00:44:59,557
Xi Wang is passing
her second autumn

480
00:45:08,706 --> 00:45:10,105
Something is amiss

481
00:45:10,340 --> 00:45:13,639
The signals lead to
a tangled clump of brush

482
00:45:13,877 --> 00:45:17,438
Expecting Xi Wang
they find only her collar

483
00:45:26,857 --> 00:45:29,985
Pan believes Jiao-Jiao tore the
collar from her youngster

484
00:45:37,668 --> 00:45:40,262
He suggests they search
for Jiao-Jiao instead

485
00:45:42,372 --> 00:45:44,397
But Jiao-Jiao's signal is weak...

486
00:45:44,641 --> 00:45:47,439
...They will have to separate
and scour the slopes

487
00:46:02,092 --> 00:46:04,185
Xi Wang is invaluable to science

488
00:46:04,528 --> 00:46:06,428
She has been monitored since birth

489
00:46:06,663 --> 00:46:09,393
and has provided
unprecedented information

490
00:46:10,567 --> 00:46:15,061
But for Pan and his crew
this panda has also become a friend

491
00:46:32,422 --> 00:46:33,980
Following his instincts

492
00:46:34,224 --> 00:46:36,192
Pan comes to a steep ravine...

493
00:46:37,060 --> 00:46:38,994
Barely visible among the foliage

494
00:46:39,229 --> 00:46:41,026
sitting casually in a tree

495
00:46:41,265 --> 00:46:43,426
the familiar shape of Xi Wang

496
00:47:08,492 --> 00:47:09,959
To re-establish contact

497
00:47:10,127 --> 00:47:12,652
they must sedate
and re-collar Xi Wang

498
00:47:15,699 --> 00:47:18,167
They must act now
before they lose her again

499
00:47:18,769 --> 00:47:22,728
But her perch above a cliff
makes it a delicate operation

500
00:47:24,408 --> 00:47:26,968
The tranquilizing
dart is necessary

501
00:47:27,144 --> 00:47:29,510
the pain to be inflicted slight

502
00:47:29,847 --> 00:47:32,975
But the moment is
always disconcerting to those

503
00:47:33,183 --> 00:47:36,050
whose lives are dedicated
to protecting wild things

504
00:47:50,033 --> 00:47:53,434
Several minutes pass as
drowsiness sweeps across her

505
00:47:54,037 --> 00:47:55,504
They pray she won't fall

506
00:48:04,615 --> 00:48:06,480
Now docile

507
00:48:06,717 --> 00:48:07,649
Xi Wang stays in the tree

508
00:48:07,885 --> 00:48:09,785
enabling them to bring
her down safely

509
00:48:30,807 --> 00:48:34,174
At 80 pounds
she is a precious but awkward burden

510
00:48:37,681 --> 00:48:41,276
The professor
who is her observer and defender

511
00:48:41,518 --> 00:48:43,247
a father of two daughters

512
00:48:43,487 --> 00:48:46,650
bears her as carefully
as if she were a third

513
00:49:00,570 --> 00:49:01,730
Using radio collars

514
00:49:01,972 --> 00:49:06,739
Pan and Lu Zhi have been able
to keep track of the whereabouts

515
00:49:06,977 --> 00:49:09,639
and activity of more than
30 pandas at Qin Ling

516
00:49:10,514 --> 00:49:13,244
Theirs is the first
comprchensive study to document

517
00:49:13,483 --> 00:49:16,350
social and breeding
behavior of wild pandas

518
00:49:18,789 --> 00:49:21,314
These periodic
inspections are inconvenient

519
00:49:21,558 --> 00:49:23,753
for Xi Wang and rob her of dignity

520
00:49:23,994 --> 00:49:26,861
But she is contributing
details of her development

521
00:49:27,097 --> 00:49:29,292
that can be obtained in no other way

522
00:49:47,017 --> 00:49:50,180
Xi Wang's story could affect
her entire species

523
00:49:50,420 --> 00:49:53,321
revealing how to ensure
their survival in the wild

524
00:49:53,557 --> 00:49:55,991
and to improve their
care in captivity

525
00:50:07,104 --> 00:50:09,766
For Xi Wang it has been
a day of curious events

526
00:50:10,007 --> 00:50:12,407
and a close encounter
with another species...

527
00:50:30,527 --> 00:50:33,985
She returns to her mother
and the life of endless simplicity

528
00:50:34,264 --> 00:50:36,892
now interested only
in a drink of water and

529
00:50:37,134 --> 00:50:38,965
soon perhaps, a little bamboo

530
00:50:55,152 --> 00:50:58,383
At the Shashuping research station,
a moment of farewell

531
00:50:58,789 --> 00:50:59,721
Ater months of work

532
00:51:00,190 --> 00:51:03,421
four of Pan's students
must return to the university

533
00:51:15,072 --> 00:51:17,632
Assistants will come
and go during the years ahead

534
00:51:18,041 --> 00:51:21,238
but Pan intends to stay
here as long as it takes to

535
00:51:21,478 --> 00:51:23,639
understand the life
of pandas in the wild

536
00:51:24,247 --> 00:51:28,047
and to keep them roaming freely
through the surrounding forests

537
00:51:36,159 --> 00:51:38,627
In the ritual exercise
called qigong

538
00:51:38,862 --> 00:51:41,763
Pan daily rekindles
his deter mination

539
00:51:48,872 --> 00:51:52,774
"My friends in Beijing always ask:
'Why do you continue to work...

540
00:51:53,076 --> 00:51:54,771
"...in the field
year after year?

541
00:51:55,078 --> 00:51:55,806
When will it end?

542
00:51:56,079 --> 00:51:57,273
Your work has been published

543
00:51:57,514 --> 00:51:58,776
Why don't you stop?

544
00:51:59,883 --> 00:52:02,181
I tell them: 'My goal
is to protece the panda

545
00:52:02,419 --> 00:52:05,013
and to establish
a refuge for them in the wild

546
00:52:05,422 --> 00:52:08,516
That is my mission
but it will be difficult

547
00:52:10,927 --> 00:52:13,657
Achieving this goal may
take my entire lifetime

548
00:52:13,897 --> 00:52:15,660
And even that may
not be enouth"

549
00:52:22,139 --> 00:52:24,004
So one man perseveres

550
00:52:24,241 --> 00:52:26,004
as solitary as his pandas

551
00:52:26,343 --> 00:52:28,834
a lonely figure in this
island of wilderness

552
00:52:29,279 --> 00:52:31,144
One man and one panda

553
00:52:34,618 --> 00:52:37,246
Since these scenes
were filmed

554
00:52:37,487 --> 00:52:38,920
Xi Wang has struck
out on her own

555
00:52:39,156 --> 00:52:40,248
In the not too distant future

556
00:52:40,490 --> 00:52:42,082
she could have a cub herself

557
00:52:45,929 --> 00:52:48,591
As pandas have for
millions of years

558
00:52:48,832 --> 00:52:50,527
she will feast on the forest

559
00:52:51,067 --> 00:52:53,035
drink from cold streams

560
00:52:53,236 --> 00:52:55,136
endure the chillmists

561
00:52:56,072 --> 00:52:59,735
But her passage though life
will be recorded for the ages

562
00:53:00,043 --> 00:53:01,476
because, like her name

563
00:53:01,778 --> 00:53:05,077
Xi Wang represents
for all her species...

564
00:53:05,315 --> 00:53:08,648
a last fateful glimmer of hope