Decided to be a bit controversial here. Someone I follow recently asked bloggers to say what their favourite animal was, which I thought was a great idea. But I couldn’t think of mine. There are so many that spring to mind for so many different reasons I couldn’t choose.
Then I started to wonder about my least favourite animal.
I have a few of these (not as many as I do favourites) but my number one is…
The Giant Panda
(Told you it was controversial).
They do not help themselves. Hate to break it to you panda, but you know that concept of ’survival’? It’s about being adaptable. It is not about refusing to eat anything but bamboo. They’re so specialised, they’ve even evolved a special thumb bone for eating it. The radial sesamoid bone is larger in pandas than any other bear species and enables them to grasp handfuls of bamboo. Few animals are monophagous (eat only one food type) as the obvious problem is once that food source is depleted, the animal has nothing else to eat.
The giant panda is probably the most iconic endangered species as the logo for W.W.F., but compared to many endangered species such as rhinos and tigers, humans are not a large threat. Poaching of pandas is an extreme criminal offence in China, punishable by up to 10 years prison sentence. Habitat loss is a big issue and caused by humans - but I’m still not letting them off the hook.
Huge amounts of money and effort have been spent on panda conservation and breeding programmes, but it appears pandas don’t like to help themselves. Pandas in the wild are only fertile for a few days each year, and despite enormous efforts breeding in captivity has proven extremely difficult. Chris Packham, naturalist and wildlife television presenter, even stated that captive breeding was ‘pointless’ as there is not enough habitat remaining to sustain them. I share his opinion that too much money is spent on panda conservation (although I wouldn’t go as far as he did in saying that he would ‘eat the last panda’ if it meant the money would be distributed elsewhere).
I think sometimes people forget that extinctions happen all the time and always have done, without human cause. Some species don’t adapt to the changing environment - they’re ‘evolutionary dead-ends’. There are plenty of ecologically important but less aesthetically pleasing animals also endangered - the prime example being amphibians as a result of the parasitic Chytrid fungus. Pandas have little interaction with other species in the wild and may be considered somewhat ecologically insignificant, despite their fluffiness. At the end of the day, it’s survival of the fittest, not survival of the cutest.
So that’s why I don’t like giant pandas. I’d be really interested to hear anyone else’s least favourite animal and their reasons why - my other least favourites include white tigers and white lions (should not be bred in captivity) and of course human beings. Don’t get me started on those.
