Animal transportation is a complicated, regulated process. Especially international transports. Especially transports involving endangered species. And especially international transports involving endangered species removed from the wild. One does not simply "wing it"... these days, at least. There was a time, not that long ago, a more adventurous (and I don't necessarily mean that in a good way) time when anything could happen.
When American adventurer and socialite Bill Harkness, who had previously won fame by capturing Komodo dragons in Indonesia, traveled to China in the early 1930's, he had no idea it would be his last adventure. He died there, before even getting a chance to set off into the wild in pursuit of the most elusive quarry any adventurer could seek - the rare, mysterious, barely-known giant panda. To the shock of many, his quest into the highlands in pursuit of pandas was taken up by his young wife, Ruth. To the shock of everyone, she succeeded. In 1936, Harkness, joined by Chinese-American adventurer Quentin Young, became the first westerner to capture a giant panda and bring it to the west. She recounted her story in her book, The Lady and the Panda.
The Lady and the Panda is also the name of the biography of Harkness written by Vicki Constantine Croke (who also wrote an excellent general-interest book on zoos, The Modern Ark). While relying heavily on the writings of Harkness, Croke has the advantage of distance and time to look back on Harkness's unconventional adventures in China, celebrating the many ways in which she differed from her competitors, the many other explorers who were on the hunt for pandas. Those differences - her patience and devotion to the animal that she collected, combined with her respect for her Chinese team and readiness to treat them as partners - may very well have been why she succeeded - on three separate expeditions - where others failed. Natural history aside, this story is an interesting enough read for its presentation of a woman entering what at the time was solely the domain of a certain chauvinistic breed of man, and not only competing in their game, but beating them at it.
Unfortunately, her exploits inspired and enraged envious rivals who, in their desire to reclaim what they saw as their lost honor, stepped up efforts to collect pandas - live and dead - further endangering this already rare animal.
Readers may be surprised to find that not that long ago, there was a world where the giant panda, today so recognizable, was almost unknown, even within its own country. There probably is no other example of still-living species which skyrocketed from absolute obscurity to world fame so quickly. When Su-Lin, as the young panda that Harkness first collected, was presented to the Brookfield Zoo, she quickly became the star attraction of the animal world (the taxidermied remains of Su-Lin - thought to be a female at the time, now known to be a male - are on display to this day at Chicago's Field Museum of Natural History).
From an animal transport perspective, the story - less than a hundred years old - is still shocking. Giant pandas are the most treasured animals on earth, and the Chinese government is fiercely protective of them. The thought of just sauntering into China - no permits, no licenses, not even the backing of a zoo or museum - plucking a panda from a tree cavity, and then sauntering back out (taking time to hit the cocktail circuit, of course) is mind-blowing to me. You couldn't do that with a shrew these days (though, to be fair, at the time of this story, the Chinese were occupied by more pressing concerns, such as an ongoing civil war and the increasingly aggressive Japanese encroachment, which later exploded into World War II). Reading some of the horrible mistakes that some of these hunters and collectors made - like trying to ship cold-loving pandas through the tropics - sent a shiver down my spine.
The past, it has been said, is like another country. They do things differently there. This applies equally well to animal transport as anything else - especially when you're looking at a different country, in the past, with the unlikeliest (for the era) of protagonists.
The Lady and the Panda at Amazon.com
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