IamMoose

Did anyone see the BBC 1 documentary about bears last night? I love David Attenborough . I also love panda bears, which are quite comically adorable. Interesting lifestyle they have though. Attenborough gravely intoned that 'some have described the panda as an evolutionary reject.' Pandas apparently don't have the stomach enzymes to deal with a purely bamboo diet - a fact amply demonstrated by a close up of some panda droppings - and hence have to spend fourteen hours a day eating just to get a bare (I will resist the urge to make a pun) minimum of energy. Why would that be do you think? I mean, why eat something that is patently unsuitable for you, especially when by nature you're meant to be an omnivore? And yet the panda has survived and is, according to this docu, the most unchanged by evolution of all the bears. Surely they should at some point have refined themselves to have a bit more suitable a diet? Just interested .

premjan

bamboo grows faster than most other plants so it is plentiful, but this seems to be a good argument why pandas are going extinct (perhaps they should be permitted to do so).

Oolon Colluphid

Thanks Moose! Will add the panda to the entry www.freewebs.com/oolon/SMOGGM.htm#grassasfood
... and as Huxley said, how stupid of me not to have thought of it!

IamMoose

Well I have heard contradictory arguments about this .. a few weeks ago I read an article which stated that pandas were declining in the wild because they don't like to mate, which seems odd to me but hey, there's no accounting for taste. But last night's docu said that in the wild, where bamboo is plentiful pandas have a birthrate similar to that of other bears. I must admit that I had always thought the former position was correct, but then Attenborough is not usually wrong about such things.

I don't want pandas to become extinct though! I like them!

There's another thread right there .. SHOULD we try to save animals from extinction? After all, it can be argued that humans are responsible for a helluva lot of the animals that become extinct - responsible for the extinction I mean - so do we not have an obligation to try and reverse the trend?

IamMoose

You're welcome! that site looks interesting, will check it more closely when i have the time.

diGriz

I think we should let them go extinct, and you know what, I won't miss them when they're gone. This is even if it's our fault. One of the most important things I've learned about nature is that things that do not adapt to changing times die out. Many many organisms will go extinct as humans continue to expand their territory, but many more organisms will move in to take up the niches that have been both left behind and newly created. It happened after EVERY mass extinction in history, why would this one be any different. The only thing we need to worry about is making sure we don't destroy the environment so much that we wipe ourselves out.

leccy

Oooh I dunno, I reckon that any bear who goes to the trouble of doing a handstand so that he can pee higher up a tree to mark his territory deserves everything the human race can do to keep him around

Plognark

I would mourn the loss of genetic and social information that comes from losing a species

Granted, I understand and accept that this is happening all the time, loooong before we ever evolved, but we have the capacity and awareness to do more than simply let them go extinct, as well as to avoid making such a devestating impact on the natural environment.

premjan

If the panda does not have the necessary adaptations to digest bamboo very well (I think elephants have a similar problem from observing their extremely fibrous dung?) then they were hanging on in a relatively easy environment anyway. Perhaps we could create a genetic treatment to give pandas a caecum like horses?

As for saving animals from extinction, well, we have to look at this from a whole ecosystem point of view. What do pandas contribute to their unique habitat that another ursine or other large herbivore could not? No point in destroying them any faster (if they won't mate, they have a problem as it is) but what is gained by working to preserve just this one species (what about all the other better adapted species we might be able to save?)

diGriz

Is it our responsibility to preserve every species from extinction despite nature trying its best to off a particular species?