San Diego Zoo panda expert worries about people, not pandas, in post-quake Wolong
Upbeat reports on the survival of China’s giant pandas in the Sichuan province’s Wolon panda reserve are encouraging, Ron Swaisgood, co-leader of the San Diego Zoo’s panda conservation unit, said Tuesday afternoon. But “my biggest concern is and was the people. Some of my best friends are there.”
In 13 years of visits to Wolon and neighboring areas, Swaisgood said, he’s learned that many panda reserve employees send their children to schools in Dujiangyan, where calamitous school-building collapses have been reported. The 7.9-magnitude earthquake Monday killled at least 12,000 — a number expected to climb.
Since the first word of the quake, Swaisgood said: “I always thought that the people were more at risk than the pandas. The people are in multistory buildings.”
The pandas, which routinely reach 200 to 300 pounds, spend much of their time in open areas, and “are pretty robust. A panda can take falling rubble…I’ve seen them fall from trees, land on their heads on concrete, shake their heads and walk off.”
As for Hua Mei, the San Diego-born panda who was transferred to Wolon five years ago, “she has just done incredibly well,” Swaisgood said. “She’s given birth to three sets of twins. She’s already surpassed her mother in terms of offspring production.”
— Christopher Reynolds, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer
[Photo: Hua Mei as a 3-year-old at the San Diego Zoo, by Karen Tapia-Andersen / Los Angeles Times]
5 Comments on “San Diego Zoo panda expert worries about people, not pandas, in post-quake Wolong”
Leave a Comment
If you are under 13 years of age you may read this blog, but you may not participate. Here's the full legal spiel.
Comments are moderated, and will not appear on this blog until the author has approved them.
All fields are required
Advertisement
SUBSCRIBE TO THIS BLOG
Click the logo below to subscribe to news from this blog:
Or add this feed to your favorite RSS reader:
more
Or add this feed to your favorite RSS reader:
more
Advertisement
May 14th, 2008 at 12:01 am
He’s absolutely right, but I wonder if there isn’t more to this article than meets the eye.
Animal rights activists and conservation activists are often criticized for caring more about animals than people. I wonder if this story was pushed to stress that not all animal rights activists are that crazy.
It might place the conservation movement in a better light to normals.
May 14th, 2008 at 7:21 am
I am disturbed at Swaisgood’s comments. Of course we are all concerned for people in China as well as the animals, but did he have to actually state that he is ‘more worried about people than pandas’? He sounds a spiteful type of person taking a chance to make cracks about the pandas out of a tragedy like this. As for Hua Mei, ‘already surpassing her mother Bai Yun in terms of offspring prodction’ I did not realise it was a contest. Bai Yun started breeding later than Hua Mei who was rushed into breeding at only five years old. All her babes have been taken from her, and people have reported seeing her distressed and unhappy. This type of careless attitude of Swaisgood does not bode well for pandas. If he cares so much for people, why does he not take a job working with them and leave the pandas to someone who will actually put their welfare first?
And although it may sound like the usual cliche, I too have family in China and am worried for their welfare. Animals however sometimes get overlooked in disasters, in particular if people are panicking and some start behaving badly.
Mr. Swaisgood-find another job fast.Do the pandas a favour.
May 14th, 2008 at 2:49 pm
hmm, let’s see.
Human death toll > 12,000
Captive Panda death toll = 0
# of Captive Pandas injured = 0
The point was, the pandas were safe whereas the people who care for the pandas have children lost under rubble. I think we can see that Mary Ewing is not offering a rational or sensible opinion. Maybe she only read the title of the article and ignored the content.
May 14th, 2008 at 3:38 pm
An animal rights activist and a conservation scientist are very rarely the same person, so it’s no surprise that his reaction is “not that crazy”. Maybe he’s just a normal person with normal human responses to events who happens to work in conservation and knows that a large animal in the outdoors is less likely to be hurt in an earthquake than a person in a tall building.
May 14th, 2008 at 6:29 pm
Ms. Ewing,
I am disturbed by your comments. Where do you see spite or a careless attitude? Overreact much? Mr. Swaisgood was right on the money. The pandas are fine and he is justifiably concerned about his friends who live in the area. Again, how is this spiteful?
Continue your great work with pandas Dr. Swaisgood!