Excited
Over at Sina and Chinasmack, people are reacting to the remarks from English naturalist, nature photographer, BBC television presenter and author Chris Packham when he said that humans should not spend vast amounts of money to protect giant pandas, but rather let them naturally die off.
In fact, he says, “I would eat the last panda if I could have all the money we have spent on panda conservation put back on the table for me to do more sensible things with.”
Packham’s reasoning:
An ex-carnivore bamboo muncher unfortunately ends up in the most populated place on earth. Its food predictably all dies with disastrous regularity and its digestive system is poorly adapted to its diet. It’s slow to reproduce, tastes good, but in a blind strike of evolutionary luck it is plump, cute and cuddly. That is from an anthropological point of view. So given only the latter in the formative days of conservation the pioneers choose it as a symbol and begin to investigate its conservation. Panda porn, or the lack of it, made us all giggle in the sixties and seventies and gradually the fat pied ones became greater than the sum of the sense in keeping them alive. But having spent so much it’s very difficult to stop. We are now spending millions and millions of dollars on a loser which lives in a country being stormed by the whole worlds greedy despite its horrible politics. It’s Catch 22 for Pandas and we’re caught by the credit cards despite our very own desperate credit crisis. So I say stop, save our relatively paltry funds for cases where we can make a real difference, because that’s our job. [full story]
About the giant panda, Packham says, “It’s got everything going against it. Furthermore, it’s gone down an evolutionary bottleneck where we could just let it go.” And of course, tons of money gets spent on “charismatic animals” which are virtually unsavable, while other species — like insects and rodents — or entire habitats are left to die.
He’s got a lot of good points — if people weren’t spending so much money to save them, these fuzzy animals would probably have already gone extinct on its own. And, he is even in alignment with the WWF on a lot of the points… except for the “letting pandas go extinct” part, of course. Then again, the case for saving the panda could be used as a vehicle to save panda habitats — bamboo forests — which are also facing destruction. What do you think?
As for me, I’m just looking for an excuse to write about pandas so I can link back to this post and awesome image about a PANDA ATTACK!!!
* I didn’t know how to categorize this post, so I put it in “Food & Drink” since Packham talked about eating pandas. To quote Moye: why you bite me?? ;_;
(Flickr photo credit, with apologies: fujikinoko)
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So, save the cute animals, don't care about the ugly? Like let's take the Yangtze river doliphin, also from China. Ladt huge extingtion of a mammal. It looked like a big peice of pink fat with pig eyes. Never would of made it in a drawing or painting, or anything people would buy. But if it was big and fluffy and cute, it probobly wouldn't be extint.
So, save the cute animals, don't care about the ugly? Like let's take the Yangtze river doliphin, also from China. Ladt huge extingtion of a mammal. It looked like a big peice of pink fat with pig eyes. Never would of made it in a drawing or painting, or anything people would buy. But if it was big and fluffy and cute, it probobly wouldn't be extint.
This is similar to the uproar over the Spotted Owl from years back. True conservation isn't about saving a single species; it's about preserving entire habitats. You don't save the panda, you save where it lives. You find sustainable products and processes. In turn, this saves a lot of species.
Of course, you still need to poke people with the PR pitch now and then: Don't eat pandas (PEOPLE EAT PANDA MEAT???), don't eat whales, don't eat/medicate with/starve then fear tigers or rhinos, careful with the sharks, too ... don't wear cheetahs ... don't make ashtrays from gorillas ... try to catch tuna, not dolphins, etc...
I am totally laughing at the thought of Lucky Panda Foot. They'd be so big and heavy to carry around.
How about Lucky BABY Panda Foot?!
exactly! that's what i'm saying! speaking of panda express, i just saw a pe commercial and those pandas were more violent and plotting and abusive to humans than the cute, cuddly Ursidae we think we know...and then there is the panda that has bitten three humans in a china zoo! ok, the people were studpid enough to get in the exhibit with a bear (no doubt darwin candidates), but still. perhaps panda tomato or panda, tofu, and cabbage IS a solution.panda jerky? lucky panda foot?
If someone did this, they could actually serve panda meat at Panda Express! How about Orange Panda or Mongolian Panda and Broccoli??? Mmmm... PANDA!
how about we just raise them domestically like cattle? that way we could keep them around for future generations AND develop some tasty recipes for them. ok ok ok, i guess i should not actually advocate panda steaks, panda stew, or panda burgers, but there would seem to be a market for them...look what we've done with the ostrich, quail, turtle, bison, and kangaroo.
before i get hate-mail...i'm just kidding...well, mostly kidding...
I see his point too, about money being wasted. Then again, following his logic, you could make the argument for letting other lost causes go. How would he feel about terminally ill people--should we let them die on their own, or persist in looking for a cure?
Packham claims we should let pandas follow their evolutionary course and become extinct? But only because humankind has obliterated their habitats? Does not compute.
He sounds like a quitter. Also.
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