April  21, 2008

Augustana grad to present “Giant Pandas: Mysterious Treasures of China”

Rock Island, Ill. - An Augustana College graduate who serves as Director of Conservation Education and Communications at China's Chengdu Research Base of Giant Panda Breeding will speak about her experiences during a visit to campus later this week. Dr. Sarah Bexell will present "Giant Pandas: Mysterious Treasures of China" at 7 p.m. Wednesday, April 23 in room 102 of the Augustana Science Building. The lecture is open to the public, free of charge.

Bexell graduated from Augustana in 1991 with a degree in biology and environmental studies. She worked for one year as the Education Curator at Niabi Zoo and then entered graduate school at Northern Illinois University and obtained a masters in physical anthropology, focusing on primate behavior. From there she took a position at Zoo Atlanta where she worked for the next decade while also completing her master's degree in science education and doctorate in education with a cognate in conservation science. She is now the Director of Conservation Education and Communications at the Chengdu Research Base of Giant Panda Breeding where she has worked full time for over two years and with which she has worked for the last eight years.

Established in 1987, the Chengdu Research Base is located just outside of the metropolis of Chengdu (population 10-million) in China's Sichuan Province. Its purpose is to increase the captive population of giant pandas as a hedge against extinction. "The past two years have brought great success in captive panda births," says Bexell, "And with this success, the Chengdu Panda Base is venturing into critical and exciting new avenues of conservation." The base will work alongside the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) Conservation International (CI), and the Chinese Ministry of Forestry to preserve giant panda habitat.

"This is a tremendous challenge due a high and growing human population that is very poor while culturally rich, "Bexell says. "Giant pandas also live in a natural resource rich area of the world that many countries are targeting for extraction. While a great deal of conservation funding and effort is given to giant pandas, they still face severe threats, including habitat destruction, fragmentation and deterioration, genetic isolation, human encroachment, pollution and the grave threat of global climate change."

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Note: for more information, please contact Dr. Norm Moline, professor geography, at (309) 794-7303 or normmoline@augustana.edu .

Kirby Winn
Director of Public Relations
Office: (309) 794-7473 Mobile: (309) 912-1532 Fax: (309) 794-3461
publicrelations@augustana.edu