On the tracks of giant pandas

Nigel Marven was the first Westerner allowed to enter Panda Breeding and Research Center in Chengdu. Photos provided by Nigel Narven

By Wang Yu

When Nigel Marven, one of the most reputable British wildlife presenters and TV producers, arrived at Chengdu, Sichuan Province last April, he was not sure he would find wild giant pandas to film.

Due to their elusive nature – Marven and his colleagues sometimes couldn’t see the pandas even when they could hear them clearly chewing bamboo – it was a task that required stealth and patience.

That was the most difficult part of Marven’s latest 10-million-yuan project: if the pandas never show, there’s nothing to film. There was another added pressure: Marven was the first Western specialist allowed to film pandas in Chengdu’s natural reserves. He was also officially Chengdu’s “panda ambassador,” an honor previously awarded to just one man: China’s biggest star in Hollywood, Jackie Chan.

“In the West, they asked me, Why are you going to China to film wildlife? There are 1.3 billion people and no animals left,” Marven said.

“But it turned out that they were totally wrong, as I’ve seen so many animals here, such as the gold monkey and giant salamander – the biggest ones in the world at nearly two meters long – and I filmed them,” he said. “The series will be broadcast in about 50 countries to show how China has so many beautiful natural places that people can visit.”

Cooperating with the Chinese documentary studio Vision, this was Marven’s first time making a film in China since he started his career 20 years ago.

Marven, 49, studied botany at Bristol University until the age of 22, when he said he realized he wasn’t good enough at math to become a scientist. He left to begin his career as a wildlife documentary researcher at the BBC Natural History Unit in Bristol.

In 1998, Marven made his first wildlife film, Giants, in which he swam with a great white shark without the protection of a cage. Soon he was widely known for his unorthodox, spontaneous and daring style of presenting wildlife documentaries as well as for including factual knowledge.