Giant Panda expedition March 2012

Great Bear Nature Tours is pleased to offer a unique opportunity to view in the wild the oldest existing bear species, and perhaps the most iconic, the Giant Panda. The expedition departs from Xian, China, and spends 8 full days in the field in the spectacular Qin Ling Mountains. Our expedition is structured to maximize our panda viewing success. Great Bear Nature Tours owners and guides, Tom Rivest and Marg Leehane, will escort the expedition. On a scouting trip in 2010 (2010 trip report) , Tom saw four different pandas during a trip of similar length as well as a large number of bird and mammal species. During 2011, on our first trip with guests, everyone in the group also saw a minimum of four pandas (2011 trip report).

Our expedition will visit Foping Nature Reserve during the middle of the breeding season. The leaves are still off the trees and the pandas are vocal and very active at this time, making locating them much easier. Foping Reserve, long a research site, has only recently been opened up to tourism. Our local trackers have been working with researchers over the years and are very adept at finding wild pandas and other wildlife. Foping Nature Reserve is a magical place where you step back in time to a forested China with large mammal species that are still numerous and commonly seen.

We will spend a day at Daping Yu, which is near Foping, to photograph the magnificent golden snub-nosed monkeys. Some consider these monkeys to be the most beautiful of the smaller primates. We may see them at Foping but there they are more difficult to approach.

Your Great Bear Nature Tours escorts will assist the local guides/trackers in providing you with a world-class panda viewing experience. Drawing upon their extensive experience working for over a decade with grizzly bears, American black bears, polar bears and giant pandas they will lead fireside discussions about bear ecology and evolution as well as the details of giant panda and its ecology.

For more details of this unique opportunity, the itinerary can be found here. This expedition is limited to a maximum group size of 6, so early bookings are recommended.