Hi /an/!
I got a question to you animal experts about panda bears. Does pandas only still exist because of us humans? I mean, they seem so "unfit" to be living in the wild. They're slow and clumsy which makes them easy prey and they also run a huge risk to die in accidents because of their clumsiness (i.e falling down from things, getting stuck etc). But humans love panda bears so we keep them in zoos almost to protect them from the wild (and their own clumsiness). Would they be extinct if it weren't for us?
>>2133873
Here's some examples of what I'm talking about. Check out the first panda falling down a tree.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1v6M41Divso
They would be perfectly fine if it wasn't for us. They have evolved for millions of years to adapt to an environment that would never run out of food(with the exception of say china getting scorched) and an adult panda doesn't have predators to begin with. From an evolution standpoint, they were winning. They don't need to hunt down prey, don't need to struggle for food and largely avoided each other except for mating.
They've become endangered due to extensive farming and deforestation of their territory, not because those wacky pandas are so clumsy they just keep killing themselves in hilarious ways. As a 200-300 pound bear, they're not easy prey for anything and they have no natural predators as adults. They're quite slow and docile most of the time, but can defend themselves or their cubs quite well, making them far too risky for most predators to take on.
So no, pandas are endangered specifically because of humans, they were doing fine in their weird ecological niche until people encroached on their territory. It is however true that they're not very adaptable in terms of their diet and territory and they don't breed well in captivity.
You could make a similar case for some of these weird island animals, but you don't evolve in mainland Asia while being "unfit to live in the wild".
Pandas are good at what they do, but like a lot of other big mammals, we've done a good job fucking them up.
Did anyone else think the OP thumbnail was a panda raping another, passed out panda?
