Today's profile comes from Adrian McLeod a writer, journalist and friend. The Bamboo-zling Giant Panda
Pandas are officially* the cutest endangered species. They are a type of bear and like other bears, they have the digestive system of a carnivore. But at some point, pandas decided to become vegetarian. These days, their diet is 99% bamboo.
It takes a lot of bamboo to keep a 150kg carnivore alive. Each week pandas need to eat their own body-weight of the stuff. Try it. It’s not pleasant.
The panda’s bamboo has been disappearing - half of it went in the fifteen years between 1974 and 1989. Humans are tearing down bamboo forests for agriculture, for roads and construction, and for housing.
But the good news is that conservation efforts seem to be working. In 2006, there were 40 panda reserves in China compared with just 13 in 1986. They are still an endangered species but scientists estimate that there may now be as many as 3000 pandas in the wild.
*According to Ade’s index cuteness.
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