Pandas are the superstars of endangered species.
But as George Schaller makes clear in this sensitive and illuminating book, all the attention and popularity do nothing to help panda conservation at a time when perhaps 1,000 to 1,500 giant pandas remain. When breeding animals are caged they don't always do what comes naturally in the wild, and as a result the population declines still further. Schaller is the right biologist-writer to pair with pandas. In the end he retained a flicker of hope but not much more. China has established more nature reserves in recent years than any other country in the world, but the reserves are inadequately policed, poaching remains a major threat, and habitat destruction for lumber and farmland continues to squeeze the panda's range.