The Last Panda (Paperback)

by George B. Schaller (Author) "The path climbed up the mountainside toward a spur, above the spring fields of potato and maize, until the Pitiao River was just a murmur..." (more)
Key Phrases: panda politics, panda rentals, panda droppings, Wang Menghu, Teng Qitao, Ministry of Forestry (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review
Only George Schaller, the intrepid and clear-eyed biologist and author, could have written this book. In 1980 Schaller became the first foreigner allowed to study the panda in its native habitat, in China's Sichuan Province. Five years later he emerged shaken and angered by what he saw as mismanagement leading to the panda's decline. Schaller is unafraid to criticize the Chinese government, the U.S. government, even the World Wildlife Fund, which uses the panda as its logo. This beautiful, passionate book shows that, sadly, even a species as well-known and well-loved as the panda faces a grim future in modern Asia.

From Publishers Weekly
From 1980 to 1985 Schaller ( The Mountain Gorilla ) was engaged in field research on the giant panda, in a joint project of the Chinese government and the World Wildlife Fund. He gives a riveting account of his experiences on two levels: observing pandas in their natural and dwindling habitat while simultaneously coping with bureaucratic obduracy, mismanagement, carelessness and lack of commitment among most of the Chinese scientific team. From a rugged camp at the Wolong panda reserve in Sichuan province, Schaller and his wife, Kay, monitored pandas, documenting their travels, courtships, births and deaths. They also tracked red pandas, golden monkeys and takins (relatives of the musk-ox). The project revealed the fragmented habitat of the pandas, which exist in isolated populations threatened by local poaching and depredation of the bamboo forests. Today, fewer than 1000 giant pandas live in the wild. Schaller discusses the "rent-a-panda" scheme, whereby Western zoos pay huge sums to China to "borrow" pandas for exhibit. In 1989 the WWF published a conservation strategy for the panda; it has yet to be implemented. Schaller's account offers a striking example of the conflict between politics and conservation. Photos.
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 312 pages
• Publisher: University Of Chicago Press (November 1, 1994)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0226736296
• ISBN-13: 978-0226736297
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #879,287 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

13 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A comprehensive study of the life of the giant panda., October 15, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: The Last Panda (Hardcover)

In this book, George Schaller depicts the giant panda of China not only as a "cute" and lovable creature, but that it is also in a struggle to overcome extinction. I enjoyed reading this book because George Schaller writes down his most inner thoughts and feelings regarding the panda project in China. He does not hold anything back from the reader. From reading this book, I learned about the plight of the panda that other books have failed to mention.

4.0 out of 5 stars The last Panda, June 27, 2009

By	Moris Roger (Belgium) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Two years ago I went to the "Panda Breeding Centre" near Chengdu in China.
Since I've seen those lovely animals, I do want to know and read more about them. That's why I did buy this nice book.

4.0 out of 5 stars Pandas should beware of do-gooders, July 27, 2008

By	Harry Eagar (Maui) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Despite his universal appeal, the panda is an insult to both good design and truth in advertising. Is he a black bear with white patches, an aberrant raccoon or something unique?
Whatever, he isn't a as cuddly and friendly as he looks.
And considering that he has an inefficient digestive system melded to a diet of unnourishing bamboo, it's rather a surprise that he has beaten the evolution game thus far. (And he doesn't even chew the bamboo thoroughly.)
He isn't likely to keep beating the odds, according to George Schaller, one of our best-known literary zoologists.
Schaller spent some time with the World Wildlife Fund in the early '80s trying to set up a joint Chinese-international research program into the mysterious panda. They learned a lot, duly reported in specialist publications.
Only a decade later did Schaller get around to writing a popular account of his panda experience, similar to his earlier books about tigers, lions etc. Yet not so similar, either.
While Schaller has always been interested in preservation of large mammals, "The Last Panda" is more alarmist and packs more of an emotional wallop.
That is, once you get past (or skip) the first 50 pages, which recount his tiresome interactions with the sclerotic Chinese bureaucracy. This is neither new nor interesting nor surprising, though it is of vast importance, whether you are a panda or a peasant.
But especially if you are a panda.
Schaller always writes with both grace and precision, and here also with passion and frustration. "Too often treatises on endangered species seem to be mere memorials," he writes, though he went into the project determined to have an impact on the beast's future.
Ten years later, it looked as if Schaller was just one more foreigner ground down by China, which its own people exceeding fine, too. "I was prepared to fight on their behalf, to rage and scream if necessary," he writes.
But "there's a limit to the art of endurance."
Non-Chinese also come in for criticism, especially at zoos that "rent" pandas.
The Chinese have never given the pandas an even break, but as long as both species were primitive and backward it was a standoff. Modernity, which the Chinese have adopted except in the fields of law and ethics, has given them the upper hand over the pandas.
But not only in China. There is a school of thought now which says large land mammals cannot co-exist with humans at the densities humans are achieving for themselves. That may be proven wrong, but it looks as if it can't happen soon enough for the pandas.
Though it has its lovely moments, "The Last Panda" is a sad book.
A year after the hardcover edition was published in 1993, Schaller issued a paperback, which included a relatively upbeat new afterword. The Chinese government, he reported, had improved its panda policies, with regular successes in the captive breeding program.
Ten years before, Schaller had been very pessimistic about Chinese suspiciousness of outside ideas, "but I have found that they always consider and, when possible, assimilate these ideas, especially if pragmatic suggestions conform to their concept of moral rightness."
Unfortunately, the American zoo bureaucrats who come in for Schaller's wrath for their fabulously lucrative rented panda exhibits had not also advanced toward enlightenment over the preceding decade.
The San Diego Zoo, despite its fancy reputation, even regressed to the point of demanding wild-caught, rather than cage-reared, animals for its multimillion-dollar exhibit.
That exhibit was stymied by Clinton administration officials, but with the Old Testament view of animals that many congressmen carry with them, the outlook for exploitable species was growing grimmer in the mid-1990s.
Current news suggests the Chinese are now treating their pandas better than their own children. It is hard to view this as progress.