Vanessa's Journal

Jan. 25, 2010 

The plot thickens

Today we went out to do some field sampling that involved looking for wildlife signs. I myself expected a typical day of tripping over vegetation and hoping to record some evidence of deer wandering through the forest. But, like many times before, the pandas had something else in store.

We were to navigate through a deep valley along a river to the east of our field station and had set out early to get a head start. The weather was a bit chilly, but the sun was peeking out from the horizon, giving us hope that it would warm up. Not long after we had rolled up our sleeves to start our work, we stumbled upon a perplexing scene. Next to the icy river bank, there was a chaotic mass of animal footprints that seemed to go every which way. It looked a bit like a cryptic Jackson Pollack painting with all of the footprints strewn about in a way that didn’t seem to have any order to them … or did they?

We spent a good deal of time trying to sort out exactly what had gone on. After some discussion and sleuthing, we surmised that two giant pandas had met at this very spot that morning. We do not know the nature of their meeting but we do know that they went their separate ways up opposite slopes on either side of the river after the encounter.

This was such a mysterious sight to see. In the giant panda world, we rarely detect more than one individual in the same place at the same time. Pandas tend to avoid one another unless it is during the mating season or a mother is weaning a young. I suspect that neither was the case today. In the end, we were left with more questions than answers. Was this encounter a peaceful one or were the two individuals quarreling? Was the meeting entirely coincidental or did one individual seek out the other?

And I was left with the same eerie feeling that I get whenever I encounter giant panda signs. I feel like I am crossing paths with the giant pandas in the night. We sometimes seem to have similar schedules. For instance, I could have chosen a different day or time to go by this area in question, but I chose today. And so did they. But we didn’t see them.

We always seem to miss them by hours, and sometimes even minutes. They rarely make their presence known. In fact, I never have seen a wild giant panda after all of these years of working here. They just continually leave behind these perplexing signs for us to try to decode. And we are always left scratching our heads trying to figure them out. In the end, I feel so humbled by each experience.

After that puzzling field sampling plot, we soldiered on, only to find ourselves following the path of one of the aforementioned giant pandas. We kept running onto hours-old panda droppings as we trudged along our pre-set route. We were unknowingly following this panda. And all I could do was wonder if he or she knew we were there. The optimist in me hoped that we would just run into the panda as it was eating bamboo or going about his or her daily life.

But that was not to be. I have come to accept the fact that giant pandas are not that simple. They are beautifully complicated. They do not let you get a glimpse into their sacred lives so easily. I am convinced that I need to work harder to earn it. After all, if we could just go out on any given day and watch the wild giant pandas, maybe they would lose some of their mystery and their uniqueness. If it ever does happen that we see a giant panda in the wild, it will be a moment to remember forever and one that I will never take for granted.