h a l f b a k e r yBunned. James Bunned.
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Do you mean the big black-and-white bears (giant pandas)? |
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From what I hear, introducing non-native species to new places can have negative ecological consequences. |
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But increasing their habitat in their historical range would be a very good idea. |
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I've read that breeding pandas is one of the most difficult things to do. Expanding their habitats by re-establishing bamboo zones is probably a good, though not original idea. |
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[Bnip] is right about the possible negative consequences on biodiversity. A well known example is that of feral bush pigs in Australia - these animals breed ferociously and have destabilized the balance of large ecosystems. |
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Perhaps pandas won't be such a problem, but you never know. And that's why it remains a risky proposition. |
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On the other hand, finally, there has recently been a similar idea by real scientists, who have plead to re-introduce large wild animals in the United States (like wolves), and there's been the even more recent idea of moving threatened species into entirely new habitats to protect them against climate change. |
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Moving ice-bears to Antarctica [link]. |
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So I'm sure there are both positives and negatives to this idea. |
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hmmm, if you were to cross one with a Kodiak would it be a Granda or a Pizzly? |
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Wasn't there a Huggy Bear on Kodiak, that detective show with Telly Savalas? |
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Couldn't you get feral pandas simply by feeding them more iron in their diets? |
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The singer from Jane's Addiction is very feral. <grins, ducks> |
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Plant urban green spaces with bamboo thickets ? |
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What is the idea here? There are wild Pandas. There are captive pandas that have been released (see link). People have been planting bamboo -- is this it? Plant more bamboo in China? |
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Plant more bamboo in terracotte pots ? In surburban gardens ? |
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There are urban foxes - why not urban pandas ? |
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Urban foxes look so pathetic though. |
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Imagine something like Trafalger Square, but with bamboo in the middle, and 1000 pandas. Half of them would be missing a foot, the other half would have bald patches missing from the back of their neck or infected eyeballs. |
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Is that something you want? |
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[edit] Then again I know nothing about pandas. Maybe they are like cats, and can maintain a kind of dignity whilst on the street. In that case I'd be all for it, providing they cleaned up after themselves. |
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A single Panda requires about 5 square kilometers of bamboo forest. Mind you - bamboo is increasingly being used to manufacture flooring and furniture, so making several square kilometers of bamboo forest economically sustainable isn't impossible. |
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// A ... Panda requires ... 5 square kilometers of bamboo // |
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How many suburban gardens does that translate to ? |
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"There are Pandas at the bottom of our garden !" |
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Real problem here is the bamboo an aggressive invasive species in many areas. Pandas would not be able to control the population much as koala do not control the population of eucalyptus. Furthermore i feel that idea reflects a real misunderstanding about why there aren't pandas near Seattle or Freetown or wherever. Furthermore as Pandas are not a domesticated species they cannot be feral. There is a large population of pandas in the wild. If you want to see them please do. (no idea here?) |
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There is an idea here, WcW. You might not like it or even have read it or understood it or appreciated the comments it attracted, but that doesn't mean it isn't an idea. |
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It would be quite amusing to see a panda lumbering down the escalator on the london tube or jumping on a red bus or sitting nonchalently chewing a sprig of bamboo on a wall at trafalgar square but aren't these guys a wee tad ferocious? |
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... and then along comes the mayor. |
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come to think of it, Nelson would look good surrounded by bamboo with lions peeking out of it. |
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how tall does this stuff grow? 25 metre apparently - half the size of the column at 56 metre. |
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If you created urban gorillas instead of
pandas and made a film about this, would
it be called "Gorillas In The Midst"? |
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This is actually the exact same idea as Gorillas for Molokai. The text of that idea proposes both gorillas and pandas, but it seemed excessive to include both beasts in the title. And so, I think it is a good idea. |
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Washington, DC, has pandas in its National Zoo. There's a patch of bamboo growing wild not far off Rock Creek Park, less than a mile from the zoo. You could break the pandas free one night, and lead them to their new home. |
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(I cut a couple of 15-foot-long stalks of bamboo out of the patch, carried them over my shoulder through DC, and now use them as poles when canoeing up rivers here in Missouri.) |
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I'm still not clear on how we can establish "feral" panda populations. According to the Xinhua News Agency there is a wild population of approximately 1600 and a captive population of 239. Because of their need to migrate from temperate climes in summer to warmer areas in the winter rather than hibernate they must live in very specific areas to which they must be instinctualy adapted. This migration seems to be key for initiating breeding. Furthermore within this range pandas must have at least two different species of bamboo in their range to avoid seasonal starvation. Establishing a new panda population would require quite a special piece of land. A released population of pandas could survive eating a more "bearlike" diet such a population would be unlikely to breed and remain healthy. -WikiVodka. |
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[Yarely] Maybe you should join WWF and help them plant bamboo for pandas, which they are doing already. |
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[bnip], you should duck. That's thirty seconds of google images that I'll never get back. |
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<peeks out to see if its safe, then hides again> |
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