Another dead panda...what do they know that we don't?

Question

Giant pandas do not breed in the wild. There hasn't been a documented case of natural pregnancy in a giant panda in over 25 years. Could it be that pandas understand something about natural selection that we bleeding heart humans are ignoring? They are all bred in captivity now, and the ones that are returned to the wild are dead within a year. So why are we helping them? Isn't it possible that pandas were supposed to be extinct decades ago to make evolutionary room for some other species that we will never know until we stop interfering?
And I like pandas, so don't call me a hater. What I don't like is the hippie enviromentalists that think no species should go extinct, even when their survival is being forced in a lab.

Answer 1

Actually your "there hasn't been a documented case of a natural pregnancy in a giant panda in over 25 years" is wrong. There has been and many. Not to mention if that was the case they would be extinct due. China does house several breeding/release facilities but 25 years ago it was a moot point.

Answer 2

You really don't understand how natural selection works. There is no "supposed to" --- that implies that there is an intelligence behind evolution.

Pandas do breed in the wild. The reason they are seriously threatened is because their ideal environment is being diminished by human actions. Pandas have very strict dietary and other requirements, a high fatality rate and high susceptibility to some diseases.

Humans can decide whether to protect pandas and their environment or not -- it is a moral choice, and nothing to do with hippie environmentalists thinking "no species should go extinct". The Chinese government wants to find the best way to preserve pandas not only for sentimental and moral reasons but for economic ones, too. Pandas earn big money for China and bring a lot of attention to their environmental programs.

Answer 3

Pandas are dying out because they, like the koala, are specialists that eat only a certain food. Specialists are the best at exploiting their particular habitat but are unable to adapt to changes in their environment.

The panda has several strikes against it. First, it requires an large amount of food that does not replenish itself quickly. Therefore, a single panda requires a large territory to sustain itself. Because the bamboo they feed on is becoming scarce, it is difficult for them to find enough food to survive. Second, the distubances caused by civilzation places a lot of stress on the panda. Females of any species, when they are stressed and malnourished, generally don't have offsrping. It's a mechanism that developed in longer-lived species to avoid wasting energy on reproduction when the offspring are not likely to survive. Third, when you consider the panda's well-known difficult breeding in "normal" situations, it's not surprising that they are not having babies.

As for pandas thinking they should be extinct or blocking another species, it's highly unlikely. Behaviorally, individuals, regardless of species, generally do things that are in the best interest of themselves and their offspring, not of their species. And it's difficult to imagine that there is another large bamboo specialist waiting in the wings for the panda to die out.

Answer 4

No. Pandas are not breeding due to the lack of an abundance of food, and the stress that the environmental damage puts on them. Don't attribute false intelligence to an animal.