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| The Last Panda | 
| Author: George B. Schaller
Publisher: University Of Chicago Press
Category: Book
List Price: $15.00
Buy New: $4.00
You Save: $11.00 (73%)
New (22) Collectible (1) from $4.00
Avg. Customer Rating:  3 reviews
Sales Rank: 286730
Media: Paperback
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 312
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1.1
Dimensions (in): 9 x 6 x 0.8
ISBN: 0226736296
Dewey Decimal Number: 599.74443
EAN: 9780226736297
ASIN: 0226736296
Publication Date: November 1, 1994
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Condition: BRAND NEW! SHIPS SAME DAY!
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| Customer Reviews:
 Too pessimistic November 20, 2005
4 out of 7 found this review helpful
It's now known -- after a comprehensive Chinese-U.S. panda census carried out between 2001 and 2003/2004 -- that there are over 1,600 giant pandas left in the wild. The previous, oft-quoted estimate of "fewer than 1,000" was way too low. The benefit of hindsight on the part of a recent reader of this book, by naturalist George Schaller, makes this book less than believable. Schaller spends much time criticizing the Chinese government as well as Western governments for what he perceives to be ignorance and apathy toward the "plight" of the giant panda. But, one must ask, if he had indeed spent more time researching pandas instead of writing numerous books -- seriously, no matter how smart you are, the amount of waking hours, and working hours, you have are always limited, not to mention the amount of time one must expend in order to travel to the remote areas Schaller has -- Schaller should have known, or found out, that 1) there were more pandas out there in the wild, and 2) several Chinese research institutions, including Wolong Nature Reserve, had already made ground-breaking discoveries in captive breeding by the time this paranoid book was published.
Granted, Schaller seems to have felt a great deal for the giant panda. I don't doubt his sincerety. But by bluntly criticizing others -- and forgetting that conservation takes a lot of money, money to protect the animals, money to research into the animals, and money to help locals escape poverty without resorting to poaching and logging -- he trivializes the amount of effort needed to preserve the panda or any other endangered species. His blindness to what officials in China and in the West, including those at the WWF (where he now works), had already been doing is simply disheartening and misinforming.
 Moving and highly readable August 29, 2005
2 out of 4 found this review helpful
This book left me with a feeling one has after seeing a very moving film--sad, but reflective and motivated. I'll think about this book and any global conservation partnership differently now. The Last Panda gives equal time to the ecology and lives of wild pandas, but also to the difficulties of forging an international conservation project between Western and Eastern cultures, in this case the WWF and the Chinese government. Bureacratic apathy, even malfeasance, differing ideas of what constitutes "research" and even sad grasps at publicity using pandas as pawns disrupt and ultimately damage the precious few pandas in the study. Schaller's droll voice lends a small bit of humor to what must have been an extreme challenge in self-control when dealing with the friction between involved parties. This is not an uplifting success story, but almost rather a story of candid warning of the realities of forging global partnerships in any realm. Ultimately, concerned citizens, researchers, NGOs and governments have to remember why we're all involved: not for personal glory or public relations, but to save the endangered animal.
 A comprehensive study of the life of the giant panda. October 15, 1998
13 out of 15 found this review helpful
In this book, George Schaller depicts the giant panda of China not only as a "cute" and lovable creature, but that it is also in a struggle to overcome extinction. I enjoyed reading this book because George Schaller writes down his most inner thoughts and feelings regarding the panda project in China. He does not hold anything back from the reader. From reading this book, I learned about the plight of the panda that other books have failed to mention.
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Wildlife, nature and the Environment
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