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Reports that each year more animals are added to the lists that foreshadow their imminent demise, that with each addition the need for action to save threatened species from extinction grows greater. Proposal of captive breeding, in which a few individuals are taken from the wild and placed in a breeding facility, and after a few years hopefully their plentiful progeny--untamed traits carefully nurtured and intact--are then set free to bolster the dwindling wild population; Steps taken by the U.S. government in 1960 to conserve the best-known endangered bird, the whooping crane, a project assigned to the Endangered Wildlife Research Program at its Patuxent facility in Maryland; Details of the plan, which was to take eggs from the whooping cranes' nesting grounds in Canada in alternate years, hatch them, raise them to breeding age, mate them--either naturally or by artificial insemination--build up a flock of 20 breeding pairs, and then find ways to return their offspring or their offspring's offspring to migratory niches in nature.

Reports on the birth of an elephant calf, Kandula, after its mother, Shanthi, was artificially inseminated at the National Zoo in Washington, D.C. How the calf is only the fourth elephant born in the United States using artificial insemination and the fifth worldwide; Lack of natural breeding in captivity; Difficulty of achieving the pregnancy; Help of Germany's Institute for Zoo Biology and Wildlife Research.

Reports the birth and development of two panda cubs at China's Cheng-du Giant Panda Breeding Research Base. Why artificial insemination was used for conception; Details of a deal to lease the pandas to Zoo Atlanta for at least ten years; Law that requires the zoo to contribute one million dollars a year for panda conservation in China.

Reports on the birth of a female panda at the San Diego Zoo in California. Use of artificial insemination to impregnate the mother because of disinterest by the resident male; Difficulties in keeping a cub alive in captivity; Size and weight of the cub and how the mother is reacting to her baby.

Studies the announcement of the artificial insemination of the National Zoo's giant panda Ling-Ling in Washington. Projection of a 5-ounce cub addition to the panda house; Accounts on the decline of the Chinese panda population; Emphasis on the role of bamboo species in the diet of panda.

Reports the copulation between two pandas at the National Zoo in Washington, D.C., on March 18, 1983. Description of the sexual behavior of the male panda; Discussion on the decision of zoo veterinarians to artificially inseminate the female panda.