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I read the article and found it kind of strange. from what I understand is that they gave giant pandas (a bear that doesn't eat meat) a choice between high prot
by autokad 4y ago
I read the article and found it kind of strange. from what I understand is that they gave giant pandas (a bear that doesn't eat meat) a choice between high protein or high carb diet, that they choose high carbs and then concluded feeding bears high protein diet is killing them. Now they did also find that in 5 Chinese zoos that did give the pandas high carb diets that they had giant pandas that successfully reproduced.
It seems to me generalizing Giant Pandas to all bears is probably not a safe generalization, nor does this necessarily show that it gave the giant pandas longer lives. I think that the giant pandas are seemingly more ready to mate is good evidence, but there could be other variables explaining that.
- bee_rider 4y agoSomehow I made it to adulthood believing that Panda Bears were not actually bears. I thought it was just like Koala "bears."
- andrewflnr 4y agoIIRC the reclassification of Pandas under ursidae is relatively recent. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Giant_panda#Classification https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Giant_panda#Classification
- InitialLastName 4y agoIt would indeed be strange to generalize a study on Pandas to all bears, which is why the paragraphs after the discussion of Panda bear diets discusses similar research in sloth bears, polar bears and grizzly bears. It's a lot easier to generalize to "all bears" when you have convincing studies of 4/8 species of bears (but only, to my count, ~10% of the global bear population because there are a lot of American Black Bears).