**DISCLAIMER- I don’t mean to offend anyone, I just feel we should look in more than one POV. Don’t hate, be open-minded!**

Natural selection

"It takes all the running you can do, to keep in the same place." -Lewis Caroll

A good scientist must consider a problem from as many angles as possible, so here, I will propose another view to panda conservation. Although the main reason for the decreasing trend in panda populations is humans, if we consider this in a natural selection view (“survival of the fittest”), we shouldn’t continue our efforts to protect a species that can’t cope with the pressures of the changing world.

In one of my classes, I learned of the “Red Queen’s Hypothesis“, where one must keep running just to keep up with their surroundings, and cannot get ahead unless one runs twice as fast.¹ Pandas can’t seem to keep up with this, and are falling behind– so should we really interfere with mother nature? (I know we have already, by changing the environment so much, but we have to be careful not to anthropomorphize our climate!)

Pandas are symbolic

Pandas are well known to be used by China initially as a gift to other countries, and more recently, on loan for 10 years (for a monetary amount). Through these actions, pandas have adopted a symbolic role for peace. However, the current political uses of them seem like an exploitation of this charismatic species. Where China gets these pandas is usually from reserves, which means pandas in captivity are used for these purposes. Conservation efforts are being exploited by the government! How can we justify that? Thus the paradoxical nature of panda conservation…

…So who really benefits?

With all that said... don't bite off more than you can chew.

Really, the clear answer should be pandas. But that isn’t the case. Humans benefit from the conservation of pandas more than the species itself. Pandas bring in revenue, are used as tokens of friendship, bring entertainment to humans (ie. in zoos), the list goes on. But not many of these actually benefit the species. It’s hard to determine who benefits, so we cannot call this a mutualistic relationship humans have with pandas. Pandas have lower mortality rates and higher fecundity in captivity, but some start to show less and less normal behaviors as seen in the wild. I feel that pandas in captivity may help the species, but like a child who is sheltered and protected by his/her parents, survival outside the greenhouse may not be so easy…

Photo credits to Classically Liberal (link)

¹ Caroll, Lewis. 1872. Through the Looking Glass. Chapter 2: The Garden of Live Flowers. Downloaded on April 3, 2012