After everyone had arrived and unloaded, the hired laborers asked to stay for the night in our tent because of the heavy rain, even though they knew that the tent was too small even for the 20-team members and had no more space for more people. They really just wanted us to pay them more. Under the circumstances we had no other choice but to pay them more. After a while, the rain subsided. The laborers slipped away, disappearing among the trees. We estimated that they would get to their village within two hours. After our 50 year-old cook, Mr. Wu,cooked dinner for us, everyone came with a big bowl and ate while standing or crouching or even sitting on our beds.After the meal, we went to bed. The tent was so small that we could only sleep on our sides. We didn't wash our feet.We just rubbed them with a wet towel.
We hired two local guides. One was named Jin from Wolongguan and another was named Yang from the Third Village. Both of them were well-known hunters in their villages and very knowledgeable about the habits, habitat and foot~iints of various medium and large animals. Besidethese twd~, we also had two other people who knew the mountain,,path quite well. They were Peng Jiagan from Wolong Nature Reserve and Zhou Shoude from the Business Depitrtrnent of Wolong Hongqi Forestry Bureau.We divided our team into 4 small groups with one of these four people as a guide for each group. Being a guide was hard work. They not only constantly found the animal trail for us, but also cut the bamboo or shrub clusters on the path with knives. After a whole day's work they said their arms were sore, but Jin said his pain would disappear on the next day if he drank some liquor. Lunch was quite simple. We usually made a fire to heat our steamed bread while our guides ate heated corn cake, which was locally called "blow, clap and eat" because when a cake was heated, you had to clap the fire ashes on it while blowing on it before eating. After being heated, these corn cakes gave out an extremely delicious smell. I often asked them for a piece.

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.

One day, two groups met each other in the forest.Before meeting they only saw the movement of bamboo,which was taken as the approach of a big animal.Everybody slowed their pace. As we got closer, something hairy approached us. The team members with guns were already aiming at it. Seeing that, I reminded them repeatedly that they could not pull the trigger before they clearly saw what animal was ahead. I reasoned that if it was a real animal, it must have a sharp sense of smell and would have turned and run away at the discovery of human Sichuan alpine Ecologe Study scent instead of coming directly towards us. When it walked even closer, we saw a black circle. At an even closer distance, it turned out to be Yang. He was wearing a serow fur jacket with the hairy side out and some black cloth wrapping around his head. After the false alarm, we went back to camp and I told them that generally the beasts of prey in Wolong were afraid of humans. At the smell of a human, they would run away. Even the seemingly awkward panda could leave a person far behind once it took flight.Those who had carried guns had experienced the troubles that go along with them. From that time on, nobody wanted to carry a gun.