Posted on 09/18/2011 5:20:00 PM PDT by nickcarraway
Edited on 09/18/2011 5:49:51 PM PDT by Sidebar Moderator. [history]
Pandas. Zoos want them, other bears want to be them (maybe?). But are they really worth all the trouble? Let's fight about it: Point: Pandas Are Awesome!
Counterpoint: Pandas Are Terrible!
I just want to get this straight right off the bat: I really don't hate pandas.* I just love nature. And nature has made it clear in no uncertain terms that pandas need to die. Now.
But condors aren’t cute. Pandas are. I don’t care about condors. Pandas have given me endless hours of pleasure and fulfill all my cuteness needs.
Economics at work
So true.
Economics at work
So true.
The California Condor unfortunately is an overgrown buzzard. Why some species of their type flourish and they die is beyond the normal “lack of habitat” reasoning. There is plenty of that. Maybe after so many years of decline the breeding instincts of the last survivors just weren’t up to par to save itself. There are plenty of scavengers out there to do the job of the California Condor.
They fact they aren’t cuddly cute bears doesn’t help their cause either.
Oh, I’m a birder too. Can’t wait for my winter visitors to arrive! I have two pairs of breeding Painted Bunting and their offspring along with a new arrival of two breeding Indigo Buntings. Not to mention hundreds of finch and other wintering species. Good Birding FRiend!
Sounds like you live in Birder's Paradise! Lol.
Enjoy the fall migration, FRiend!
I have heard that pandas maul/kill so many peasants every year, but the Chinese gov’t suppresses the info because they want a certain image of the panda to prevail. I don’t know if that is an urban myth or what. They had the death penalty for killing a panda up until 1997, and you have to think that folks are running into more than ever, as the population explodes. They are large powerful animals, and they have attacked folks in zoos, but so have pretty much every large animal kept in zoos.
Freegards
Yes, I think they brought down a male “friend” for their daughter born two winters ago ;D! I hope they keep it going. They had a male last winter. Who knows maybe we’ll see three pairs soon.
They really are quite wonderful to observe. They know me now and hang longer on the feeder. The millet helps ;).
Best of good sightings to you as well.
“Pandas are bears.”
Pandas are like bears. They are also like raccoons.
“...but allowing them to become extinct when there are resources to prevent that shouldn’t be an option.”
Oh absolutely, I am even for wildlife preserves as long as they aren’t crazy about it like the eco-statists want. But I know it would really suck to be moved off your land because pandas need it, which has happened supposedly. It would also suck to not be able to even make pandas wary of you, or be so afraid of defending yourself, because the state will crush your family if you molest a panda, so you or your kids get mauled one day (not saying it happens). The average peasant isn’t allowed firearms to my understanding.
I don’t know if pandas are even a real threat in the wild, but I wouldn’t put it past the chinese state to just accept so many peasant deaths a year as the cost of a healthy national symbol. I also wouldn’t be shocked if they kept it secret, and the guest researchers they let in to be kept in the dark about it or go along with it “for the good of the panda.”
Freegards
Actually, they’re in the ursid family now.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.