Saving the Giant Panda [Hardcover]

Terry L., Ph. D. Maple (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: December 1, 2000

Providing a wealth of information and amazing photography in a coffee-table book format, Saving the Giant Panda will appeal to panda lovers and conservationists alike, and is the perfect gift for all animal enthusiasts.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Dr. Terry L. Maple is president and CEO of Zoo Atlanta. During sixteen years of leadership, Zoo Atlanta has become recognized as on off the world's most innovative zoos. In addition, Dr. Maple is professor of Psychology and the Elizabeth Smithgall Watts Professor of Behavior & Conservation at the Georgia Institute of Technology. He is the author and editor of 120 scientific publications, including Captivity & Behavior, Gorilla Behavior, Zoo Man, and the highly acclaimed Ethics on the Ark. He is the founding editor of the professional journal, Zoo Biology. Dr. Maple is a resident of Peachtree City, Georgia

Product Details

• Hardcover: 168 pages
• Publisher: Taylor Trade Publishing (December 1, 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1563526158
• ISBN-13: 978-1563526152
• Product Dimensions: 10.2 x 10.2 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.3 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,853,718 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

12 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A Private Sector Success, January 24, 2001

By 

Newt Gingrich (Washington, DC United States) - See all my reviews
("THE")   

This review is from: Saving the Giant Panda (Hardcover)

This is a fine introduction to the Giant Panda, its patterns of life, the complexities of conservation, and the inevitable politics of a zoo trying to work with both the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the Chinese Government to bring Pandas to the United States.

Terry Maple's story alone is amazing and will interest anyone who believes that private interests can perform public services better than government. He is a professor of Primate Psychology at Georgia Tech who has been the director of ZooAtlanta since 1984. He saved a zoo that was run by a city government and was on the verge of disaccreditation by transferring management responsibility to a private association. This has allowed him to move the zoo from a poorly run, poorly managed institution that was not the best environment for its animals to one which has an amazing research focus, which has developed a world class gorilla, orangutan and Mandrill program, and allowed him to set his sights on bringing Pandas to Atlanta. In the process he was also a pioneer in privatizing government run zoos as ZooAtlanta has flourished as a privately run institution leased from the city.

Panda ethology is worth studying because it raises troubling questions about lessons we might need to learn about our own species. Consider the implications for overly bureaucratized education for humans while reading the following passages:

"Pandas receiving enrichment were much more active in the presence of the test stimuli, and in many cases stereotyped behavior was reduced or eliminated. Enrichment was a strongly motivating condition in the lives of these animals... enrichment keeps pandas active." (p.76)

"New social opportunities are often powerful motivators"(p.79) "Baby pandas do not show any signs of independence until the fourth month of life, and they may stay with their mothers into a second year." Research has indicated that they stay "together two and a half years, about a year longer than most researchers thought was the norm".

Maple goes on to discuss a variety of lessons being learned about Panda behavior and many of them will stimulate you to think about challenges we face in understanding the best way to raise humans.

This book is also an excellent outline of the relationship between conservation in the wild and conservation in zoos and the degree to which both approaches are necessary if we are going to optimize biodiversity - especially for large vertebrates. It is a worthwhile introduction for anyone who cares about conservation in general, pandas in particular or the method by which two countries can combine government and private activities into effective conservation.

5.0 out of 5 stars A great panda book, January 26, 2001

By A Customer

This review is from: Saving the Giant Panda (Hardcover)

There are not many panda books out there, but this is a great one. There are some wonderful pictures of ZooAtlanta's two bears, as well as other great pictures. It also tells the story of Maple's journey to bring the pandas to Atlanta. In addition, it has some panda facts on it. It would look great on anyone's coffee table.