{"id":1867,"date":"2009-09-24T10:49:19","date_gmt":"2009-09-24T14:49:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/esa.org\/esablog\/?p=1867"},"modified":"2009-09-24T10:49:19","modified_gmt":"2009-09-24T14:49:19","slug":"pandas-let-em-die","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/esa.org\/esablog\/2009\/09\/24\/pandas-let-em-die\/","title":{"rendered":"Pandas: Let &#8217;em die?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"color: #000000\"><a href=\"http:\/\/upload.wikimedia.org\/wikipedia\/commons\/thumb\/3\/3c\/Giant_Panda_2004-03-2.jpg\/800px-Giant_Panda_2004-03-2.jpg\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft img-fluid\" style=\"margin: 5px 10px\" src=\"http:\/\/upload.wikimedia.org\/wikipedia\/commons\/thumb\/3\/3c\/Giant_Panda_2004-03-2.jpg\/180px-Giant_Panda_2004-03-2.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"180\" height=\"120\"><\/a><\/span><span style=\"color: #000000\">A <a href=\"http:\/\/www.msnbc.msn.com\/id\/32974370\/ns\/world_news-world_environment\/?GT1=43001\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Reuters article<\/a> yesterday proclaimed that BBC television naturalist and conservationist <a href=\"http:\/\/www.chrispackham.co.uk\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Chris Packham<\/a> thinks that scientists are wasting their time on the conservation efforts devoted to giant pandas. Pandas have reached \u201can evolutionary cul-de-sac,\u201d he says, and they\u2019re destined to die out because of their own habits.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000\">It\u2019s true that pandas have a highly specialized lifestyle: they need to eat about 25 pounds per day of just one plant, bamboo, to survive, and their size and morphological adaptations make them restricted to their high-mountain habitats in China. Add that the fact that they are difficult to breed in captivity and you have a conservation nightmare.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000\">Packham\u2019s claim is one that has been bandied about by everyone from evolutionary biologists to bleeding-heart animal lovers. Has the panda, through unhappy chance, come to a stopping point in its success as a species? Unable to shift their diet or move to a new geographic area, are they destined to peter out of their own accord like so many other ancient mammals before them?<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000\">While scientists agree that fate has not been particularly kind to the pandas, <a href=\"http:\/\/mbe.oxfordjournals.org\/cgi\/content\/full\/24\/8\/1801\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">molecular studies<\/a> also show a tight correlation between the advent of human civilization and the beginning of panda decline. What\u2019s more, pandas used to occupy lowland areas, but have been driven out by human activities. Even the 2008 Sichuan earthquake, which destroyed nearly a quarter of panda habitat, was so devastating to pandas <a href=\"https:\/\/esa.org\/pao\/newsroom\/pressReleases2009\/07272009.php\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">because of its interaction with developed areas<\/a>.\u00a0 Even if history has been unkind to pandas, humans have been at least as unkind.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000\">I welcome your thoughts.\u00a0 Is it our fault that pandas are a dying species? And whether or not we\u2019re to blame, should we continue pouring money into their rescue?<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A Reuters article yesterday proclaimed that BBC television naturalist and conservationist Chris Packham thinks that scientists are wasting their time on the conservation efforts devoted to giant pandas. Pandas have reached \u201can evolutionary cul-de-sac,\u201d he says, and they\u2019re destined to die out because of their own habits. It\u2019s true that pandas have a highly specialized lifestyle: they need to eat&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":50,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8,48],"tags":[352,7,353],"class_list":["post-1867","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-conservation","category-ecology-and-society","tag-chris-packham","tag-conservation","tag-giant-pandas"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/esa.org\/esablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1867","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/esa.org\/esablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/esa.org\/esablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/esa.org\/esablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/50"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/esa.org\/esablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1867"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/esa.org\/esablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1867\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/esa.org\/esablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1867"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/esa.org\/esablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1867"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/esa.org\/esablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1867"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}