Vanessa's Journal

Signing off—for now...

I have been back at Michigan State University for awhile now and I think I am adjusted to the 12-hour time difference and a world where there is running water. I do miss my friends back in Wolong, but am happy to be back here to see those who I have missed and take on the next phase of my PhD.

I have been busy getting caught up with what has been going on in my diverse lab, the Center for Systems Integration and Sustainability. The world does in fact go on without you when you leave. I also have been busy preparing for a conference that I will present at in April, which has nothing to do with my black and white panda friends, but is keeping me on my toes nonetheless. I have also been trying to formulate ideas of more things to work on during my hiatus from China, which will likely include revisiting some of the topics I read about while at Wuyipeng such as the giant panda reintroduction program and the third giant panda survey of the wild panda population. 

As for the status of things back in Wolong, the cages are in fact partially dismantled. The doors are off so animals can go in and out freely. I will likely be in contact with my field team soon to see about the possibility of putting some meat in there so that we could perhaps get some giant pandas hooked on it during the mating season.  As far as I know, the field team members have moved on to work for a colleague of mine. They will be sampling the Wuyipeng area and potentially other areas in Wolong to find animal signs and document the characteristics of the habitat that the various animals (including giant pandas) are choosing to spend their time. It will be interesting to see if they find more pandas up near the cages at this time of year. 

I don’t exactly feel a sense of disappointment about the field season that is now over because I think we all learned a lot and we cannot control what the wild giant pandas do.

They are mysterious creatures and that’s what makes them interesting to study. If we could predict what they do at any given time then there would be no reason to invest in tracking them to uncover their secrets like we hope to do.  That being said, I am optimistic about next year. My plan at the moment is still to return in November to start up the trapping again, but the start date could depend on what I hear from the field team as to the status of the giant panda population up there at that time. We will see.

The word from my friends at University Relations is that they would like to have me continue these updates to some degree until then, although not nearly as frequently as before, so that you all can understand more about the lengthy and unpredictable process that is my research. I don’t know what shape the next winter field season will take, but if you are all patient enough to hang on until then, we will all find out together.