in Smithsonian magazine, ianuarie 2014, este un text genial al unei scriitoare minunate Susan Orlean despre ursuletii panda.
Filmul Adaptation (Hotul de orhidee) a fost facut dupa un articol de Susan Orlean. printre altele este o geniala jurnalista de travel si are citeva carti minunate.

in caz ca vreti sa descoperiti niste autori noi in 2014

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After her brief coupling up, the panda will have a hormonal surge that will seem to indicate that she’s pregnant, but the surge occurs whether she is pregnant or not. This makes it nearly impossible to tell the difference between a real panda pregnancy and a “pseudo-pregnancy” until the day a cub is born (or not) approximately four months later, which is why there always seems to be such breathless anticipation when a captive panda reaches the end of what might be a real gestation. It’s a lot like a royal baby watch, but with one major difference. When the Duchess of Cambridge is pregnant, there’s no question that she’s pregnant; a panda, on the other hand, keeps you guessing. In short, the panda is the classic mystery wrapped in an enigma, delivered in the most endearing package in the world.

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Sometimes, of course, the scientists in the field do get lucky. One of the researchers I met at Front Royal, Wang Dajun, a research scientist at Peking University who trained with the Smithsonian and collaborates with the species survival team, spends most of his time tracking pandas on the preserves in western China. He was explaining to me that wild pandas’ elusiveness is more a matter of their hard-to-navigate habitat and their solitary behavior, rather than any fear of humans; they don’t actually seem to mind humans very much. He began to grin, and then explained that one female panda that was tracked beginning in 1989 had become particularly relaxed in his presence. She was so relaxed, in fact, that one spring morning, as she was walking with her cub, she turned to Wang and indicated that she wanted him to babysit so she could head off to feed. Another scientist filmed this episode of Wang providing panda child care. In the video, now posted on YouTube, you will be struck not only by the amazing sight of a panda cub tumbling and frolicking with Wang, but also by the look of utter joy on Wang’s face as he scratches the cub’s belly, extracts the sleeve of his jacket from the cub’s inquisitive grip, and, then, at one point, hoists the cub up in the air and dances with him. “That,” Wang writes on the YouTube page, “was best time in my life.”

intregul articol aici.