Hands off the pandas! :mad:
A verse by Ogden Nash, from the early years of “panda-mania” – particularly re panda cubs – some three-quarters of a century ago.
I love the Baby Giant Panda;
I’d welcome one to my veranda.
I never worry, wondering maybe
Whether it isn’t Giant Baby,
Or whether I should be compliant
With those who style it Baby Giant.
I leave such matters to the scientists,
The Giant-Baby- and Baby-Giantists –
I simply want a julep and a
Giant Baby Giant Panda.
I know there’s at least one naturalist who argues that it would be better if we just let pandas go extinct and focused on other, more savable species. Of course, he’s pretty much regarded as a heretic for having this opinion, but there’s really a lot to be said for it.
It’s not like the Panda’s extinction would free up money that would go to save other species. There isn’t a fixed pot of money for habitat preservation that, once it’s used up, is gone forever.
The truth is that Panda’s aren’t competing for money with other endangered species, they’re competing with money for Doritos and iPods and purses and cars and granite countertops.
Money spent on saving the giant panda is a lifestyle consumer product. It could just as easily happen that if pandas were extinct then the total amount of money for ecosystem protection would shrink as people lose interest in protecting an ecosystem that doesn’t contain the panda.
Of course the main reason pandas are endangered is that their natural habitat of bamboo forest is almost completely turned into farms. Protecting the panda consists mostly of not developing the last tiny bits of Chinese wilderness.
And this is the case for almost every other large land animal. Tigers and lions will reproduce quickly in captivity, there are literally thousands of captive bred big cats around the world that are totally superfluous to the species protection program because the problem isn’t that there aren’t enough big cats, the problem is that there isn’t enough wilderness for the big cats to live in.
No, I don’t think he is a heretic, but reality - well humans and money - being the way it is, then if the panda is used as one of the “ooh pretty” things with which to get more people interested in endangered species, that does no real harm and can do some good.
They have newer editions of that book? I read one co-written with Douglas Adams; didn’t know there were more. It’s probably just as well; the book is heartbreaking.
I saw a video where scientists were moving kakapos to the protected areas, and one of the researchers was carrying a kakapo egg and stumbling through the jungle. I held my breath – imagine carrying something so fragile and so precious as one of the last eggs of a critically endangered species!
I think a lot of the attraction is that the Pandas have been extinct for so long, but once they ruled the earth. Well as much as you can rule the earth when you don’t have the ability to speak. But that Pandasaurus Rex was pretty awesome and you wouldn’t want to meet a Velocipanda in a dark alley.
And as kids we are all attracted to these prehistoric animals and mythical beasts like the unicorn and the honest politician. So it’s no surprise that years later we are duped into going to see guys, who can’t get better jobs, despite their fine arts degrees, dressed up in panda suits pretending to be pandas in zoos all over the world.
Thread title/username matchup level: over 9000
I’m sensing a lot of hate in this thread.
Thanks. I was about to post something like this.
Because it’s the black & white cookie of bears!
According to Wikipedia, their numbers are actually on the rise. I think the “won’t screw to save it’s species” thing is only regarding panda’s in captivity.
Yes, I agree with this, too. If the panda is the poster boy of the preservation movement, and gets people to think about the global environment, their local environment, and the destruction of habitat for human uses, then that is good and positive and makes a difference.
They did a (I think) 20 year follow up of all the species mentioned, with Mark Cawardine, and Stephen Fry. I saw the programme, but haven’t read the book.
The kakapo bit was pretty awesome, but then it’s hard to have anything involving kakapo that isn’t awesome.
You can have my panda when you pry it from my cold, dead hands.