Pandas Live on

Observing giant pandas at the Bifengxia panda base

Hope everyone is having a wonderful Holiday season, the New Year is just around the corner!

So, I have updated my video software, it was on sale, I guess I needed it anyway, my version was 9 and the latest is 12.   Am still getting some shaking and shimming even though I used the stabilizing adjustment, so I will just have to continue to fine tune my videos with the software as I go.  At least I can get the videos to render now, so I can post to YouTube and transfer here.

One of the jobs that we were assigned to help the scientist with at the Ya'an Bifengxia base on my Earthwatch trip was to spend time observing certain pandas and record their behaviors.  They have developed an extensive list of well over 100 probable behaviors and the scientist are using this information to help them in becoming more familiar with how wild pandas may behave.  This knowledge will help the scientist then understand how pandas interact in their environment.  

Because pandas are solitary in nature and very elusive as well as living in a difficult mountainous terrain, its almost impossible to do any prolonged observations in the field.   

We recorded behaviors with mother and cubs that are captive raised at the Bifengxia base and mother and cubs that are in the wild release program at the Wolong base.  Our first week we spent at the BFX base.  We also observed other pandas at the base for comparison.  You can click on the sheet to see it more clearly.  

Above is one of the sheets that lists some of the codes and a short explaination of the behavior associated with the code.  We spent a couple of days with our guides helping us to understand the behaviors correctly before we actually started to document our observations.  We broke up into teams of two, some observations were done just outside the caged area of the pandas, if that is where they were hanging out, or if they were out in their yards we found a good observation spot, as the adult enclosures have a concrete wall around them, but large glass windows have been set within the concrete walls that enabled us to observe.  If the weather was bad, or the panda was in a location where we couldn't closely see them, we recorded their behaviors in the cam room.

 

We were permitted to take our cameras or video cameras with us and on occasion we captured some shots between the times we were documenting.  

We were observing Su Lin, who was born at the San Diego Zoo in California and her 2 year old cub in their outdoor area on Leopard mountain.  Su Lin was pretty much eating bamboo and the cub was high up in the tree probably about 40 feet up sleeping, as many cubs do.  Here came Su Lin walking up the hill toward the tree where the cub was.  She walked over about 20 feet away from the cub and climbed up a different tree.  I had to get this on video.  

I am not accustomed to this quick action recording, I generally set up with a tripod, most zoo pandas are pretty quiet with the exception of cubs, but even they are in a limited area and easy to capture. Most of the time, we were shooting photos and recording on the go.  It was pretty exciting but challenging.

Tai Shan who was born at the National Zoo in D.C., is the first panda you will see in the video.  No, he was not included in the observations, but we had asked to see him and the other returnee pandas and so they took us over to where they were. As you will see he was ready to crash out, but did look up when we called his name it brought back great memories from his days in D.C.  Didn't see Fu Long, and our guides weren't sure of the names of the other pandas in the other enclosures that are on the video. 

This is an amazing time for the scientists at the Wolong Reserve.  They just completed the construction of their new wild release and limited breeding center near the town of Dujianyan.  So, a thorough evaluation is taking place in how to best utilize their different bases according to their long term goals.

This Earthwatch expediton works exclusively with the scientist at the Wolong Reserve.  Their research and goals may be very different from other panda bases in China.  You can read more about the work being done at the Wolong Reserve on this website. CGPPRC (China Giant Panda Protection and Research Center.

This video shows Tai Shan, then Su Lin climbing the tree, a shot of the cub sound asleep, and a couple of other pandas who live with Tai in the Returnees area of the base.  Stay tuned, more videos of our work with the pandas!

 

Scientist understanding the past to help pandas in the future

Amazing work continues to go on behind the scenes with genetic scientist continuing to put the pieces of the puzzle together of how pandas have evolved. 

Scientists Discover Evidence of Giant Panda's Population History and Local Adaptation

Dec. 16, 2012 — A research team, led by Institute of Zoology of Chinese Academy of Sciences and BGI, has successfully reconstructed a continuous population history of the giant panda from its origin to the present. The findings suggested whereas global changes in climate were the primary drivers in panda population fluctuation for millions of years, human activities were likely to underlie recent population divergence and serious decline.

The latest study was published online in Nature Genetics.

The giant panda is the rarest member of the bear family. Sometimes considered the ambassador for all endangered species, it is a well-recognized symbol of international wildlife conservation. The giant panda is currently threatened by continued habitat loss, human persecution, and other threats. Its dietary specialization, habitat isolation, and reproductive constraints have led to a perception that this is a species at an "evolutionary dead end," destined for deterministic extinction in the modern world.

In this study, researchers carried out whole genome resequencing of 34 wild giant pandas and found the current six geographic populations of giant panda could be divided into three genetic populations, including Qinling (QIN), Minshan (MIN) and Qionglai-Daxiangling-Xiaoxiangling-Liangshan (QXL). Through reconstructing giant panda's population history, they found several important evolutionary events such as two population expansions, two bottlenecks and two population divergences.

The giant panda has a very specific diet, namely bamboo, while its ancestor was omnivorous or carnivores. As early as about 3 Myr ago, they probably had already completed their dietary shift and the pygmy panda emerged with bamboo as its primary diet. The warm and wet weather at that time provided ideal conditions for the spread of bamboo forests that further led to the first population expansion of giant panda. However, about 0.7 Myr ago, the panda population began to decline due to the two largest Pleistocene glaciations occurring in China, and its first population bottleneck occurred at about 0.3 Myr ago. During that period, pygmy panda was gradually replaced by another subspecies -- baconi panda that has larger body size.

After the retreat of the Penultimate Glaciations, giant panda's second population expansion happened and it reached its population peak between 30~50 thousand years (kyr) ago. The warm weather in the Greatest Lake Period (30~40 kyr ago) and alpine conifer forest may play an important role in the flourishing of the panda population. However, during the period of last glacial maximum (LGM), the climate was cold, dry, and inhospitable with frequent storms and a dust-laden atmosphere. Under such harsh environment, extensive panda habitats were loss and its second population bottleneck occurred.

The more recent panda population history showed that the panda population separated into Qinling (QIN) and non-QIN populations at about 0.3Myr ago, and then the non-QIN cluster diverged into two populations, the Minshan (MIN) and Qionglai-Daxiangling-Xiaoxiangling-Liangshan (QXL) at about 2.8 KYA ago. Subsequently, the three populations were different in the ways of fluctuation. For example, there was a drastic decline in the QIN, a slight increase in the MIN and a more remarkable growth in the QXL populations.

Researchers identified the signals of panda's local adaptation. They found the largest group of selected genes in these populations was related to sensory system. However, the two genes, Tas2r49 and Tas2r3, were associated with bitter taste and were under directional selection between the QIN and non-QIN populations, showing no signal of directional selection between MIN and QXL populations.

As a form of olfactory communication, odor perception is crucial for reproduction and survival of giant pandas in the dense forest. Researchers found the MIN and QXL populations had fewer directionally selected genes than QIN and non-QIN, suggesting less variation happens in the selection processes between MIN and QXL. They also found the evidence that population fluctuations were driven by global climate shifts, but recent human activities have likely caused population divergence and the serious recent decline.

Shancen Zhao, Project Manager from BGI, said, "We have identified three genetic populations of giant panda for the current six geographic populations lived in western of China. The varied local adaptations found in our study provide invaluable resource for researchers to better select effective conservation methods to rescue the giant panda even other endangered species. The translocation of wild-caught individuals or releasing the captive-bred ones may be a feasible approach. " Source: Science Daily