Satellites to monitor panda sex

Eric Hu wrote:

Well, whether human action is sustainable or not is another issue. There
are cases in nature where the population of one specie exceeded the food
source, and ended up starved themselves to death and killed half of the
population.

This might happen to human. But I am a firm believer that nature will live.
Sure human might end up killing themselves. The earth will simply be
repopulated with other species of animal (cockroach-man!!!). Nothing we
human do can compare to the comet/metorite stike that wipe out the
dinosaurs. Yet nature repopulated itself.

I guess my point about nature/artificial is really just philosophical. If
human arose from natural evolution, then human action should be deemed
natural. And if intelligent robot were created one day by human, since it's
an offspring of an "animal" from natural evolution, shouldn't robot be
called natural as well?

Eric Hu
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Ellen Yeh wrote:

no. the creation of human may be natural, but the way of human life is just unsustainable. well...I'm not saying that we should just leave the pandas alone and let them die out. I guess I was being too cynical and wasn't clear enough on my point. All I was trying to say is: it's wrong to force Pandas to have sex, when the real cause of their "extinction" is from the disruption of their natural habitat.

Ellen

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Eric Hu wrote:

Well ~ Panda has been known to have low birth rate and high infant
mortality rate. Their population number were low to begin with before human
interventation. They are slow, don't have sex much, only give birth to 1 or
2 baby each time, are careless parents and known to crush their own baby by
accident. The only reason they still live till now with this "survival
disadvantage" is the abundant supply of bamboo in China.

Well, Panda population (like Cheetah population) has reached this critial
point that without human aid to help them reproduce, they are probably
doomed ~ It's like saying, oh, we've pollutated the lake with garbage. So
we should just leave it be and let nature take care of itself. No! We
should clean up our garbages first, then let nature be ~

To be honest, whether Panda lives or not really have no effect on the food
chain or eco-system. No other species really depend on this bamboo eating
creature for survival. The only reason we put all this money into saving
Panda and Koala is because they are cute. It's no longer the survival of
the fittest, it's the survival of the cutest!

Really, would you put your money into a snake saving foundation or a
panda/koala saving foundation, even after knowing that snake has medicinal
benefit from its venom and can contribute to control the roden population?

I've always wondered though. If human is a result of natural evolution.
Then shouldn't human action be considered "natural", rather than
"artificial" ??

Eric Hu
burningtyger@hotmail.com

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Ellen Yeh's comments:

this is sick. Panda's have survived since. We stupid humans should just leave them alone. Don't come back 30 years later, saying that Panda's extinct because they don't want to have kids. bleh...we stupid humans should stop reproduce to stop the global entropy growing.

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Reference Article:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/4285694.stm

Satellites to monitor panda sex

Persuading pandas to breed can feel like hard work

Scientists in China plan to use satellites to track pandas to learn more about their sexual behaviour.

A Chinese-US project will use Global Positioning System (GPS) satellites to monitor panda movements in a reserve in remote Shaanxi province.

It is part of an attempt to understand the panda's poor breeding record.

"Tracking them with advanced technology and observing their sex activities might help us find ways to avoid their extinction," an official said.

Wei Fuwen, from the China Academy of Sciences' Institute of Zoology, said pandas living in the wild were inaccessible for long periods of time.

"Traditional observation cannot unravel the ecological mystery of the animals," he told the official Xinhua news agency.

China's scientists have come up with a series of more or less surprising ideas for improving panda reproduction, including showing them sex education videos.

Despite such efforts, the animal remains endangered.

China last year said there were an estimated 1,600 of the creatures left in the wild, 40% more than previous figures suggested.

A further 161 pandas were reported to be living in captivity.