Book excerpt: "Giant Pandas in the Wild: Saving an Endangered Species" is an insider's view of one of the most alluring and least understood animals on the endangered species list. Through photographs never before published in a book readers enter a magical world in the remote mountainous area that is home to China's remaining 1100 wild pandas. Zhi, who began her research in 1985, made the panda's habitat her second home and gained the trust of more than 20 of these animals. Her observations and photographs dispel the popular myths about pandas and draw attention to the dedication required to save the panda from almost certain extinction.