As Nate and the new interns get set up I thought I’d take the time to introduce you to the group you’ll be reading about over the next couple of weeks in Bifengxia.  Here’s the introductory blog from the first of our three Christmas interns, Mingfei Li:

“Hello! My name is Mingfei Li (李明非) and I am beyond excited to be interning with PDXWildlife this winter. Fun fact: my name was chosen by my great-grandfather who took inspiration from a Chinese proverb 明辨是非, which means to make a clear distinction between right and wrong. I grew up in Toronto and recently graduated from McGill University in Montréal with a double major in Organismal Biology and Anthropology. Luckily, both cities that I have been in are very diverse and it has allowed me to appreciate and embrace my identity as a Chinese-Canadian.

For much of my educational career, I was as drawn to social sciences as I was to natural sciences. The interdisciplinary nature of my degree allowed me to explore various avenues, which included biology (of course) and East Asian studies. Before pursuing my Master’s, I wanted to take some time off to gain more research experience, and also to spend some time in China, something I’ve always wanted to do. This internship is exactly what I’ve been looking for – I get to study animal behaviour while experiencing a country that I’ve viewed from afar my whole life.

A female red colobus grooming a male colobus in Kibale National Park.

This past winter, I spent three months in East Africa and it reaffirmed my passion for field studies. I was lucky enough to work with some amazing research assistants at Kibale National Park to design and carry out my own project on red colobus monkeys. I wanted to investigate if grooming was more prevalent between individuals of the same sex or opposite sexes. I would spend the morning observing grooming behaviour in red colobus monkeys, and then spend the afternoon inputting my data. It gave me a short, but genuine, taste of what is like to do this sort of work.

Group picture of the primatology class with the wonderful research assistants.

My time in East Africa also taught me to be critical and question everything. A group of us conducted mock ethnography with local farmers by asking them questions about their history, livelihoods, and governance. This forced me to re-examine what I thought I knew about development, research, and conservation. I realized that for conservation to work, there needs to be adequate research but there also needs to be a consideration for the roles that animals play in people’s cultures and livelihoods.

My first time milking a goat with my host family in Maasai Mara.

I can’t wait to meet the other interns, the research team, Mr. Cheng, and of course, the giant pandas!

-Mingfei Li

P.S. My sister is basically a panda so I’m already well acquainted with the species.

My younger sister pretending to be a panda.

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Mingfei Li is studying giant pandas from December to February at Bifengxia working on the stereotypical and maternal care studies.