After preparation had been made, and under the approval of the leaders of Sichuan Provincial Forestry Department, we went to Wenchuan County located in the Qionglaishan Mountains, where lots of pandas had been found. Before beginning formal research, we visited some local families. Based on our visits, we set our research focus in Wolong Nature Reserve and Caopo Township. The latter was the place where pandas had been captured and sent to countries such as the United States and United Kingdom where they caused a sensation in the 1930's. In April of 1974, Zhou Shoude (later vice director of Wolong Nature Reserve Administration) and I decided to first visit Caopo Township to get some information. On an early morning we started our journey from Long Taigou, Genda Township in Wolong.

When we started our research work around Niutou Mountain, we could come back and stay in one big tent.With the expansion of our research, we stayed on that group basis at night as we researched all the mountains in the area. Whenever possible, we returned to our camp,Gupo. If it was too far away to return, we stayed in a cliff cave or under a big tree getting a feel for living close tonature.

Due to the small populations of these rare and precious wild animals, including giant pandas, it was very hard to actually see live animals during our field research. We made the estimates of their populations based on evidence they had left behind. The research on giant pandas was mainly conducted by examining their dung. Due to the fact that they mainly live on bamboo, they consume large quantities of bamboo every day. Since they have short intestines, as carnivores do, they cannot fully digest what they have eaten. They eat and excrete, leaving 100 piles of dung each day with an average weight of 400 to 500 grams.In our research, we determined the number of giant pandas by inspecting the degree to which the bamboo had been chewed and the length of the remaining bamboos in their dungs. If two piles of dung were far away from each other and different in terms of chewing degree and the length of undigested bamboo, we took them as having been left by two different pandas. If we found a cave where some animal had slept, usually with 20 piles of dung, we assumed it to be a giant panda. Once we had determined it was a panda, we had to sample some of its dung for further microscopic analysis. When each small group returned to camp, they turned in their statistics to me for generalization. As problems came up in our research, Weusually discussed them around the fire before we went to?bed.

For most me to participate in They were afra beasts of prey and asked for permission to carry guns. At first, I refused and told them we were a group of researchers, not hunters. Later, with the aim of eliminating their psychological fears and satisfying their curiosity, I decided to let them take guns. In the beginning, everybody wanted to carry the guns to show off in the case of an actual encounter with a beast of prey. To their great disappointment, the guns bought much more trouble to them than joy. Since we walked in dense groundcover, the guns often got caught on the twigs of bamboo or shrubs.Those who carried guns expended much more energy. The guns became a complete nuisance. Once, they almost made great trouble for us.