Why I Hate Pandas and You Should Too

[ErikJ]

He has some good points but I strongly disagree with him. Pandas are the super-star of the conservation movement world-wide. I would bet their "cuteness" has produced far more in conservation donations than what they have used.

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Why I Hate Pandas and You Should Too
By Timothy Lavin Aug 27, 2013 Bloomberg News editor

Congratulations on your new panda cub, Washington! You're prolonging the existence of a hopeless and wasteful species the world should've given up on long ago.

I understand the impulse. Some people find them cute. Pandas don't have much of a habitat left in the wild, thanks to heedless human development. And zoos imagine they're doing the right thing, pulling in some extra visitors while helping conservation efforts.
But the first test of a species' worthiness for conservation should be some instinct for self-preservation. And pandas fail objectively.

First, their breeding habits don't suggest a species brimming with vitality. Pandas at a research center in Chengdu were so disinclined to mate that workers there subjected the poor things to Viagra and videos of other bears procreating, hoping they'd get the idea. Zoos, including in Washington, more often resort to artificial insemination. In the wild, where birthrates aren't much better, pandas are prone to inbreeding. Females only ovulate for a few days each year, and if a mother does manage to have more than one cub, she abandons the weakling. That's fine; nature's mean. But don't whine when a species with such habits falls into inexorable decline.

Second, although blessed with a bear's predatory teeth, the lethargic beasts eat almost nothing but bamboo -- a plant that's nearly devoid of nutritional value and disappearing in the wild. Pandas consume 40 pounds of it a day, eating constantly, speeding their own demise.

"Here's a species that of its own accord has gone down an evolutionary cul-de-sac," Chris Packham, a British author and wildlife activist, said in 2009. He argues that "the panda is possibly one of the grossest wastes of conservation money in the last half-century."..........................more>

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-08-27/why-i-hate-pandas-and-you-should-too.html

[sinkingfeeling]

1. The article is disgusting. The same can surely be said of humans.

[FSogol]

2. LOL, those damn Pandas should pull themselves up with their own bootstraps.

What an embarrassing article.

Of course the right wing thinks the same about most minorities.

[NCTraveler]

3. K&R for the headline alone.

"Why I Hate Pandas and You Should Too"

[dawg]

4. Another excuse for me to post this ...

[CreekDog]

5. too bad Pandas aren't like some other animal, or humans

[Carolina]

6. Why I

hate Timothy Lavin and his ilk. His subspecies of homo sapiens has gone down the evolutionary cul-de-sac and shed the sapiens part. His ilk of lethargic beasts knows nothing, and is devoid of any value to the world. Too bad they aren't disappearing from the wild.

[UtahLib]

8. Well deserved expression of disdain. n/t

[Orrex]

7. Actually, it raises an interesting point that I first heard by Douglas Adams in 1992

Panda behavior, in terms of feeding and reproduction, is indeed preposterously inefficient. However, for them to act in any other way would be an utterly un-panda thing to do and may in fact be beyond their capabilities. It's simply what pandas do.

What humans do is modify their environment. We modify the hell out of it, in fact, and it's causing massive destruction to the ecosystem and to countless species along the way. So how are we trying to correct this behavior? By further modifying the environment. But to act in any other way would be an utterly un-human th ing to do, and may in fact be beyond our capabilities. It's simply what humans do.



Adams was talking about a rare, flightless parrot, but the point is the same.

[Warpy]

9. Bamboo declining in the wild?

Fat chance, as anyone who has tried to corral a patch of ornamental bamboo in the yard without a few feet of buried concrete barrier knows.

What bamboo does do, and has done recently, is go into a flowering period, every single plant of the same genetic stock, in whatever climate it has been transplanted into. After flowering, it dies.

The record for bamboo growth in a single day is nearly four feet. When new plants start from the seeds of the old, they can reach full size in four months, depending on growing conditions. After that, the changes in the plant are related to maturity rather than increased height or width.