Our wild animals are a symbol of freedom.
Without them something is missing from even the most beautiful landscape.
His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama

The myriad shades of green that surround me are laden with drops of moisture from last night's rain. The only sounds are muffled footsteps, mine and the local guide's, accented by drip, drip, drip as the final drops fall from canopy to earth. The aromas of this botanical profusion cling to the early morning mist. My senses are on full alert, searching for something.

Suddenly a shaft of light breaks through a fissure in the fog to illuminate the gloaming, and there it is, the object of my search-a cuddly black and white giant panda. I am in the awesome presence of a species caught between here and eternity.

The giant panda is considered by World Wildlife Fund (for which it is the poster child) to be the world's second most endangered large animal, after the mountain gorilla of East Africa. We are blessed to share our days on this earth with the panda. But those days are numbered. Only a transformation of the human spirit can save this icon of the living wild from certain extinction. Anything less and our infatuation with the panda will end in tears.