Against Pandas?

In the spirit of our penguin - bashing (see "Favorites") here is a rant about pandas by brilliant anthro- blogger John Hawks:

"....I am so tired of having to hear about it every time a panda ovulates in this country!

"Count me out of this number:

[V]isitors flock to see them, and when they cannot make it through the gates, self-described pandaholics blog with doe-eyed ardor about the bears.

"Give me a break! "Doe-eyed ardor" for pandas? Personally, I find red pandas much more interesting than giants, and there are a lot of species I would rather see.

"Now, I don't have any ill will toward the pandas -- protecting their habitat is really vital, and they are good mascots for conservation. But this panda madness is insane.

"First of all, they're just not that smart -- other kinds of bears are much more entertaining.

[That's what you get for being vegetarian, says I-- SB]

'Second, they don't respond well to captivity. If it didn't screw up their behavior so much, they wouldn't have so much trouble breeding. I say, leave the poor animals in the wild, and give them some more room to live.

"Third, they are sucking the oxygen out of conserving every other kind of animal. The article gives the total value of the contracts to the Chinese government as $80 million. Think about the protection that might provide to other species."

The last point-- that and the fact that I doubt the Chinese are using all that money for conservation-- seem to be the most important things here, kidding aside.

For good info on the Chinese and the environment see Tigers in Red Weather by Ruth Padel (also the best tiger book current, period-- you will see how the Russians, for instance, are doing a lot better-- by a poet who is a descendant of Darwin); and The Retreat of the Elephants by Mark Elvin.