What purpose do pandas serve?

Question

Seriously, nothing eats them, they only eat bamboo....why do we need them? It can't be to keep the bamboo in check because people can do that by continuing to use it for flooring.

Anything that's only in 'heat' 72 hours a year, needs human intervention to procreate successfully and can't even hibernate like its cousins-probably should just give it up already!
Maybe the WWF (World Wildlife Fund NOT World Wrestling Federation) could focus on more "useful" animals.


Man, y'all are easy to "fire up". ;)

Answer 1

What main course would I serve with my fried butterflies, koala kebobs, and kitten pie?

Answer 2

Perhaps they are not really useful to the biological food chain right now. A purpose the panda-saving people may be serving is for the future.

Perhaps one day we may find something useful about them, and will need them. E.g. there are millions and millions of species out there, and we don't know enough about many to know what usefulness they have.

Perhaps the world will be overtaken by bamboo. Who is the best at eating bamboo? Pandas. So pandas will outcompete others at this food contest and outsurvive other species in this simple scenario.

Answer 3

The same purpose you serve. Which is to say, no purpose. Life is. You're part of it, so is the panda.

Answer 4

In addition to eating bamboo, pandas also fertilize them. You might say that panda and bamboo have a symbiotic relationship: each benefits from the other.

Also, the "eats, shoots and leaves" joke wouldn't be nearly so side-splitting without a panda as the protagonist.

Answer 5

I'm with thesecitiessleep. If there's a species the planet would be better off without, it's us. All others live in harmony with nature, consuming only what they need to survive. Humans are the only ones that kill just for sport and consume just for the sake of consuming.

One of my favorite scenes in "The Matrix" is the one where Agent Smith explains why the machines hate humans. He says humans aren't mammals; they're more like viruses. Like viruses, they use up all of the resources in one area until there's nothing left, then spread to "infect" some other area.

Answer 6

do you have a purpose? Does anything really have a purpose? If you were to die tomorrow would the world be any worse off in the grand scheme of things? it will still revolve and go round the sun. We are just blips in time and few of us will fulfil any great role in shaping the earth or the universe.

Answer 7

the purpose of pandas is, like any other species including humans, to live a happy life and to produce/raise sufficient offspring to keep their species going.

Answer 8

Unlike many other animals in ancient China, pandas were rarely thought to have medical uses. The only considered medical use was probably of panda urine, to melt needles accidentally swallowed in the throat. In the past, pandas were thought to be rare and noble creatures; the mother of Emperor Wen of Han was buried with a panda skull in her tomb. Emperor Taizong of Tang was said to have given Japan two pandas and a sheet of panda skin as a sign of goodwill. Panda skin was considered a sign of courage afterwards, and thus pandas became a target for poachers.

The giant panda was first made known to the West in 1869 by the French missionary Armand David, who received a skin from a hunter on 11 March 1869. The first westerner known to have seen a living giant panda is the German zoologist Hugo Weigold, who purchased a cub in 1916. Kermit and Theodore Roosevelt, Jr. became the first foreigners to shoot a panda, on an expedition funded by the Field Museum of Natural History in the 1920s. In 1936, Ruth Harkness became the first Westerner to bring back a live giant panda, a cub named Su-Lin who went to live at the Brookfield Zoo in Chicago. These activities were halted in 1937 because of wars; and for the next half of the century, the West knew little of the pandas.

Gao Gao, an adult male giant panda at San Diego Zoo

Loans of giant pandas to American and Japanese zoos formed an important part of the diplomacy of the People's Republic of China in the 1970s as it marked some of the first cultural exchanges between the PRC and the West. This practice has been termed "Panda Diplomacy".

By the year 1984, however, pandas were no longer used as agents of diplomacy. Instead, China began to offer pandas to other nations only on 10-year loans. The standard loan terms include a fee of up to US$1,000,000 per year and a provision that any cubs born during the loan are the property of the People's Republic of China. Since 1998, due to a WWF lawsuit, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service only allows a U.S. zoo to import a panda if the zoo can ensure that China will channel more than half of its loan fee into conservation efforts for wild pandas and their habitat.

In 2004 Australia received a female Panda, Jo Ling, that has resided in Sydney since then. The Panda was donated by an undisclosed donor who is believed to have paid his entire life savings to have the gift brought to Australia. Researchers say Jo Ling has seemed melancholy as she had a mate before arriving in Sydney and probably misses him. Pandas are known to be fiercely loyal creatures. Attempts to reunite Jo Ling with her mate have thus far not been successful, but it is hoped that in late 2006 / early 2007 that this might finally take place.

By 2005, political tensions had eased between mainland China (People's Republic of China) and Taiwan (Republic of China), causing the mainland to suggest giving Taiwan two pandas as a diplomatic gift. This proposed gift was met by polarized opinions from Taiwan, and in the end Taiwan didn't accept them.

Answer 9

When you think about it, there are many animals that serve no purpose. Mainly, they are used as an example of endangered species since people seem to think they're awfully cute. (They are kinda cute when they roll around...)

Answer 10

Pandas are pretty much as useful as people. Nothing eats us, we eat indiscriminately, and we only keep plants and other animals in check accidentally.

Answer 11

Every animal plays a vital role in the Earth's fragile ecosystem. What have you got against pandas?