Should We Let Pandas Go Extinct?
If we might anthropomorphize for a moment, it seems like the giant panda isn’t really trying to “make it”. They are extremely picky about their (rapidly disappearing) habitat, they eat (almost exclusively) one of the most non-nutritious food sources on Earth, they don’t seem do much (for themselves or their ecosystem), they reproduce slowly, and living in captivity appears to be a pretty potent mood-killer for panda procreation.
Captive breeding programs and habitat protection have cost billions of dollars. That’s a lot of bread to throw at one bear, especially considering how many thousands of other (equally deserving?) species face similar threats to their existence. From our point of view, is saving pandas worth it? Are we pandering to the panda? Are we getting bamboo-zled by those cute little faces?
Unfortunately ecology is not accounting, and these decisions are not as simple as calculating intrinsic value or return on investment. On one hand, saying pandas deserve to kick the bucket makes for a good joke, but it isn’t sound science. On the other hand, I wonder how many honeybees, an animal far more important to all of our daily lives, despite not being officially “endangered”, we could save with those billions?
Pandas are a flagship species whose fuzzy swagger raises awareness and brings in at least a little money for other less-charismatic flora and fauna, but are we saving the cute and fuzzy nose to spite the faceless? The video above from MinuteEarth takes a good look at the question of what species we should spend our limited money saving, and why. File it under “must watch”
Those billions of panda bucks have resulted in success for the species. Researchers at the Chengdu giant panda research center have actually pretty much cracked the code when it comes to breeding pandas (and looked good doing it, too). The real challenge, and possibly more expensive one, is how to reintroduce these pandas into the wild, especially when that “wild” is becoming increasingly less so on a daily basis. It reminds me of a question that comes up in the debate over reviving the extinct wooly mammoth: Is it right to restore a species whose world is gone, or soon might be?
I don’t know the answer, and I’m not sure anyone does. But it’s an important conversation to have. What do you think, should we let the panda go extinct, save them at any cost, or something else?
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jtotheizzoe: Should We Let Pandas Go Extinct?If we might...
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