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Pandas Aren’t Pointless
Cute viral videos of baby pandas in breeding facilities in China are very popular for obvious reasons. This has shaped the popular view of pandas as cute, cuddly, and clumsy. However, there is another popular view that pandas are pointless, contribute nothing to the ecosystem, and are taking up valuable resources that could be used to conserve more “useful” species. The idea that pandas are pointless and shouldn’t be saved was voiced by the British naturalist and TV presenter Chris Packham in 2009 when he claimed that they are in an “evolutionary cul-de-sac”, and are so poorly adapted to living that nothing we do can, or should, save them. For instance, it seems that they willfully eat nothing but bamboo and refuse to fuck. Is this image accurate, and would it be more worthwhile to focus on saving other species?
Pandas live in mountainous forests in southern and central China, with most of the population living in Sichuan Province. Deforestation in this area has destroyed much of the panda’s habitat, and the construction of roads and railways further fragments the forests, which prevents them from moving around to find food and mates. Combined with their specific dietary needs (around 90% of their diet is bamboo) and relatively low reproductive rate (a female panda may successfully raise only five to eight cubs in her lifetime), this makes pandas vulnerable to population decline. Climate change, which…
