The Secret World of Pandas

Assembling the work of a team of Chinese photographers, Preiss ( The Dinosaurs ), Hu (coauthor of The Giant Pandas of Wolong ) and Gao, a photo editor and translator, offer glimpses of the 10005 pandas currently estimated to populate the earth--a few kept in zoos, but most roaming Chinese forests. Loners by choice, bamboo-fanciers by diet, the animals are so rare that even famed naturalist Goodall has seen only two of the ``giant'' class--in captivity. Pictures are the closest many of us will get, and these photos, with accompanying essays on panda history, habitat and habits, generally serve the cause well. Though their native mountain landscapes sometimes sparkle here with a pat glamour, the pandas themselves are immune to the occasionally glorifying lens: they play in a shaft of sunlight in the forest, skitter up lofty branches and romp in snow; a mother and child seem to grin in a momentous hug. This useful introduction to the pandas' plight never panders. (Nov.)