Wildlife as Canon sees it debuted in the January 1982 issue of National Geographic. 40 years ago! I think I saw that Canon discontinued the series just recently- like maybe in December? A pretty good run. I haven't gotten this month's issue but it will be weird to read a NG without those iconic ads. 

Maybe I mentioned it but I have been engaged in a decades-long project to read every word of every NatGeo- maybe as far back as the month I was born, September 1974. It's coming along.  Got a ways to go though. This month in fact I read the January 1982 issue, which is maybe why these ads are at the top of my mind:

What I often do, especially when the featured species is unfamiliar to me, is google to see how they are doing now. Giant Pandas are hardly an obscure species, of course, and they have come a long way since 1982. I was surprised that they are still actually not in great shape, at least in the wild. We've all seen the photos and videos from the Wolong National Nature Reserve, and they seem to be doing good work (I think?) but in the wild Giant Pandas are still listed as vulnerable by the WWF. Exact numbers are hard to come by and fluctuate in any case, but somewhat less than 2000 seems to be a realistic count.