If trekking through mountain foliage sounds tough, reality is even tougher. There are no paths at all, and the reporters struggled to keep up with the trackers -- who kindly pointed out they would normally cover the same ground in one-third the time.

Mountain patrollers Liang Chunping (L) and Luo Chunping(R) show one of the 36 infrared cameras installed this year on the 322-square-kilometer Wanglang National Nature Reserve. [Zong Chao /china.org.cn]

People think pandas are fat and clumsy, Liang said. But that's because they see them only in zoos. In their natural habitat things are very different.

"Wild pandas have very acute sense of hearing and smell. They are actually very agile," Liang said, "A 20-minute route for a wild panda would take a human two hours." Tracking pandas is hard even for professionals it seems.

Luo and Liang stopped from time to time to sniff tree trunks for panda urine and check bamboo stalks for bite marks. Whenever they found a trace of panda activity, they used their GPS to record the exact location. They also collected trash left by careless hikers.

As the reporters were finally running out of breath at an attitude of 2,975 meters, they arrived at a camera site. Luo and Liang carefully took the camera from its hiding place amid bamboo stalks. Luckily, the camera had captured two images of a panda, one of its head and the other of its rear. The camera recorded the panda visited at 6 pm on April 17.

After retrieving the information they needed, the patrollers replaced the camera. Regularly checking the cameras is now part of their daily routine.

Does Luo ever gets bored living in the mountains with no cell phone connection, TV or Internet? "If you stay here long enough, you fall in love with the fresh air and the amazing views," he said. "Every day brings a new challenge. The reserve is my home, and there's no place like home."