With a couple hundred pounds of equipment and supplies stuffed into several full-sized roller bags, PDXWildlife is about to begin the Summer/Fall research season in Sichuan, China. Even though we’ve managed to turn this trip is  this a “family” research event, Meghan and I still have separate itineraries flying in opposite directions. A small detour of ~7,000 miles is taking Meghan to a behavioral conference in Lisbon, Portugal a few days before Dee and I cross the Pacific for Sichuan, China. Meeting in the Chengdu airport on the evening of August 3rd, we will then spend a few weeks in the small mountain town of Gengda to open up the reintroduction and weaning research to Zach and three new interns. With no time to waste, we will then travel back to Chengdu on August 20th to welcome in three more interns to continue the research being conducted at Bifengxia.

As Dee begins 2nd grade at the end of August, I will remain at Bifengxia to finish training the interns while they return home. Near the middle of the month as my trip comes to an end, Pandas International has a large tour group coming through Sichuan and I will be glad to see some familiar faces. Six weeks of travel is double our usual length, but with such a busy itinerary, it promises to go by very quickly. As the saying goes- Off to the races!

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The schedule is packed to the max, but I’m sure that we will get plenty of updates out on our progress. Be sure to check our blog and Facebook posts for more info on our whereabouts. As always, feel free to send us your questions by commenting below. See you in China.