The Panda Project

A deep-dive into the world of giant pandas, including fascinating stories and expert insights about their behavior, biology, and conservation from Dr. Brandie Smith, panda expert and director of the Smithsonian National Zoo.

Humans are fascinated by giant pandas. They may be dangerous carnivores, but giant pandas are packaged in so much charismatic cuteness that they are impossible to resist. Now, Dr. Brandie Smith, director of the Smithsonian National Zoo in Washington, DC, and a true expert in giant pandas, gives readers a front row seat to these miracles of nature, describing what it’s like to feed them, train them, play with them, and help them survive.

Pandas, like people, have strong individual personalities, quirks, habits, likes, and dislikes. The book addresses many misconceptions about giant pandas, including surprising truths about panda biology, evolution, and the challenges involved with taking care of them.

Giant pandas have a unique reproductive style that has worked perfectly for them for millions of years in the wild, but has made it challenging for them to respond to climate change and habitat destruction, and makes propagating them in zoos extremely difficult.

With chapters on raising baby pandas, the diplomacy involved in exchanging pandas with China, and the ongoing quest to keep giant pandas from going extinct, The Panda Project is the ultimate guide to these irresistible creatures and why we love them, written by one of the world’s leading experts.