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James Fair has just returned from a trip to China’s Qinling Mountains, one of only six areas where wild pandas still exist. With experienced local trackers, he went out in Changqing and Foping Nature Reserves, and though he didn’t actually see pandas in the wild, he did get a better understanding of what China is doing, perhaps a little belatedly, to conserve this rarest species of bear. The trip was run by Discovery Initiatives www.discoveryinitiatives.com |
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Two giant pandas at the Chengdu captive-breeding centre eating what pandas love best – bamboo. In the wild, 99 per cent of a panda’s diet consists of bamboo, but surprisingly Chengdu’s residents were only moved to a mainly bamboo diet two years ago. Interestingly,
captive-breeding success rates have subsequently increased.
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 The red panda – looking like a cross between a bear, a raccoon and a red fox – isn’t actually closely related to its ‘giant’ cousin, scientists have decided. While the giant panda is officially in the bear family, the red is in one all of its own, but most closely resembles species such as raccoons. Like the giant panda, the red (here also in the captive-breeding centre) is threatened with extinction, but it has a wider range that extends into Burma, Nepal and India.
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 Songbirds taken for the pet trade are unfortunately a common sight on the roadsides in China. These are hwameis, which are also known as the melodious laughingthrush, a species renowned for its beautiful song, though these ones weren’t singing. I also saw Bohemian waxwings and other species of laughingthrush for sale.
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 In good habitat, panda dung can be seen almost wherever you go. It is quite large – some 8 to 10 inches long – and quasi torpedo-shaped. I was told that expert trackers can even tell which way the panda was going by the way the dung is facing. This one is quite old; fresh dung is green and moist inside and reminded me of canned artichokes.
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The unseasonably warm weather in the Qinling Mountains – there was supposed to be snow on the ground – made our task of finding pandas harder. Snow would have made our progress through the forest quieter, while colder weather would have brought pandas lower down the valley. As it was, the closest we came to a panda was on the first day, when there was, apparently, one up a tree within 60 metres of us – we just couldn’t see it.
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Red birches are a common and beautiful sight in the temperate forests of the Qinling Mountains. Silver birches (the same species as we get here) are also common, as our oak and sweet chestnuts. There is also a remarkable overlap with bird species, with great and lesser spotted woodpeckers, nuthatches, coal tits and bramblings, to name just a few, all common. I also saw a kestrel and a golden eagle.
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 Mr Feng, one of the trackers in Foping Nature Reserve. Most of the trackers are ex-poachers, so tourism gives them a way of earning a living that does not involve taking trees or wildlife from the reserve, both of which are now illegal. Trackers have an extraordinary ability to move both quickly and silently through the forest, which I was sadly unable to match – to the detriment of seeing pandas.
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