Quake shakes MSU panda team as they await word of colleagues

Vanessa and the rest of the panda team join the world in waiting for news from an area of China that is remote, but familiar to the team.

The U.S. Geological Survey indicates that the epicenter of Monday’s powerful earthquake likely is close to the Wolong Nature Reserve, the very land in which Vanessa spent four months this winter attempting to capture and collar elusive giant pandas. She left without capturing pandas, but with information and appreciation for the area, which is rich in biodiversity.

The quake hit about 60 miles northwest of Chengdu—the city of 3.75 million where Vanessa made several trips for supplies and milkshakes—in the middle of the afternoon when classrooms and office towers were full. There were several smaller aftershocks, according to the USGS.

About 1,200 pandas—80 percent of the surviving wild population in China—live in several mountainous areas of Sichuan.

From Vanessa:

"We are all worried. It is absolutely surreal to see it in maps on the news websites and realize that it is our study site and I know and love all of the people living there. We have not been able to make contact because all cell phone and landline phone towers are down.

"Many of the local colleagues we work with have families and homes in Dujiangyan, the nearest major city and one that has come up in the news on this earthquake a lot. It is sobering to see the images of the middle school and high school rubble when many of our colleagues and friends have children who go to school in Dujiangyan.

"We do not know how long it will be until we get word of any kind from someone in Wolong. The road to Wolong is cut off due to multiple landslides so it is very difficult to get there and find out the status of things. We feel frustrated in our current 'sit and wait' mode and wish that we could do more."