Songs of the forest

It is 6 am and the sun is barely creeping up through the trees.  A sound much like a siren sidles into my consciousness waking me in my tent. The sound grows louder and the frequencies increase as the minutes go by. After several minutes, cacophony erupts and branches...

A Panda a Week: Bai Yang (白杨)

I know you guys have been breathlessly awaiting the “panda a week” post.  Sorry it’s ca little longer than a week!  I promised last week that I’d feature a male panda this week and what better male panda than Bai Yang? His name means...

A Panda a Week: Meet Bai xue (白雪)

Well this morning was a busy one at the breeding center.  It looks like over the weekend all the female giant pandas decided to go into estrous at once.  The hormones and behaviors of 8 females are increasing.  That means that this week and next week will be very busy...

Crested Gibbon Update

Hi Everyone! It is the hot season and it is HOT (in the 90s F) and dry and dusty, a big change from the rainy season when I started my field work.  I have had some personnel changes over the past month. My village guide Tsing had to go work in the fields with his...

Panda Cameras!!

Hurray for me!! We finally got the panda cameras installed and working (with quite a bit of technical support from Rob Cleminson at VideoSurveillance.com).  I really cannot say too many wonderful things about their team!  Even in China they were emailing me at 10pm...

A Panda a Week: Mei Qing 美茜

Since the pandas aren’t going into estrous just yet and I have a bit of down time on my hands I thought maybe you guys would enjoy learning about a different panda every week I’m here.  This week, meet Mei Qing.  She’s a little quirky and a little...

Illegal Wildlife Trade

One of the biggest threats to the survival of remaining wildlife in Southeast Asia is the illegal wildlife trade. Wildlife is sought after for many reasons but the most apparent is for traditional medicines. The most gruesome traditional medicines are bear bile and...