Pandas

Last night, Kirsten and I ooh'ed and aah'ed over a PBS show about pandas. Lots over overly-cute baby pandas being born in a captive breeding program. Very heart warming stuff.

But...

Why can't we admit that the Panda is basically extinct? Even without habitat loss, the bloody things are doomed! They give birth to twins, but for some reason regularly reject one cub. This cutes the viable population each generation from the start, and the mortality rate before breeding is amazing. They are overly specialized in feeding, dependent on a single food source. They even have problems reproducing in the wild.. a scent recognition system has gotten so off whack that many pandas will refuse mating with anything but blood relatives! This is not good for genetic diversity.

There are battles we can win, and battles that we will loose no matter what we do. Pandas are the latter.

Give it up, and allow them the dignity of extinction.