Michael PRETES
A group of pandas munching on their breakfast of bamboo shoots—a staple of their diet—at the Canton (Guangzhou) Zoo. The panda (Ailuropoda melanoleuca), a highly endangered species, is native to the rainy bamboo forests in the isolated mountain uplands of Shaanxi, Gansu, and Sichuan. PHOTO BY JOAN LEBOLD COHEN.
With only about 1,000 giant pandas left in the wild, this icon of Chinese nature is as rare as it is popular.
