The Brutal Reality of Panda Breeding

Panda breeding has been highlighted as one of the large success tales in conservation: U.S. and Chinese scientists working collectively to extend the quantity of pandas launched into the wild. But a New York Times investigation discovered that they’ve succeeded solely at making extra pandas for zoos. Individual pandas have been damage within the course of, and no less than one has been killed. Mara Hvistendahl, an investigative reporter for The Times centered on Asia, explains how information, images and movies — many of them from the Smithsonian Institution Archives — provide essentially the most detailed, unvarnished historical past of this system.