In the Company of Pandas

About the Book

What is it about giant pandas that makes them nearly impossible for humans to resist? Dr. Brandie Smith, John and Adrienne Mars Director of the Smithsonian’s National Zoo and a true expert in giant pandas, gives readers a front row seat to these miracles of nature, these bamboo-devouring carnivores, describing what it’s like to care for them, cherish them, and help them survive.

Pandas, like people, have strong individual personalities, quirks, habits, likes, and dislikes. Through Smith’s eyes, we get to meet several generations of pandas who have called the National Zoo home. Smith 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 millions of years in the wild but has made it challenging for them to respond to climate change and habitat destruction, and makes breeding programs in zoos a key to their survival.

With chapters on raising baby pandas, the history of ‘panda diplomacy’  with China, and the ongoing quest to keep giant pandas from going extinct, In the Company of Pandas is the ultimate guide to these irresistible creatures and why we love them, written by one of the world’s leading experts.

Dr. Brandie Smith is the John and Adrienne Mars Director of the Smithsonian’s National Zoo and Conservation Biology Institute. With decades of experience in animal care, conservation, and zoo management, she has overseen critical breeding programs for endangered species and has personally witnessed some of the most dramatic moments in panda conservation history, at one of America’s premier zoological institutions. Originally from Indiana, Pennsylvania, she grew up around animals and began her professional career as an intern at the Pittsburgh Zoo and the National Zoo.