Vanessa's Journal

Feb. 23

Today was a breath of fresh air for me. I finally made a decision about my flight back to the U.S., which is something that I have been stressing about for some time. Back in October, I had booked a flight back for Feb. 28, yet it became apparent over the course of the field season that this would be too early. I probably put way too much thought and worry into what date I should change it to, but there is something unnervingly final about putting an end to a trapping season, especially when we haven’t caught any giant pandas yet. 

I consulted with the veterinarians again, who are in charge of animal safety and care, and they confirmed that they would not be willing to anesthetize pandas during the mating season. The question then becomes, when exactly is the start of the mating season? There isn’t a magic date, as far as we know. I think I was most unnerved by the fact that there is so much uncertainty in this issue. In science in general, there is a great deal of uncertainty, unknowns, and overall gray area. This can either be unsettling or make life more interesting, depending on one’s perspective. 

In this case, the most in-depth research on giant panda mating season comes from a 20+ year study on wild giant pandas by Wenshi Pan and colleagues from Peking University in a place called the Qinling mountains. Their research showed that the mating season in their study area began on March 7. People generally believe that in this study area, which has very different environmental conditions, the mating season begins about one week later than that. However, in my opinion, there is not a whole lot of data to support that theory and there is not a comparable long-term study in this area that looks at changes in start dates of the mating season across different years. 

In the end, I decided to book my return flight for March 10, with a potential end date to trapping of March 5. We will see how things go. If we get to that point and find significant evidence of giant pandas near a trap, I may have my team leave the traps open for just a few more days after I have left the reserve. They all know what they are doing and would be fine without me if it came to that. 

After I got off the phone with my airline friends, I definitely felt like a weight had been lifted and I can now go forth and plan the rest of my time here. I also felt like I finally had time today to get caught up on some reading and clean my increasingly messy room (which as we know was so unkempt that it was attracting small rodents). I feel like a new person.