Pet Peeve

I know we're making new discoveries in biology all the time. After all, that's why I'm in this field. In fact, the tree of life has been revised at least 3 times since I started studying biology in the last 7 years. We went from Plants, Animals, Protists...etc, to Prokaryotes and Eukaryotes, to Archaea, (Eu)bacteria, and Eukaryotes. But I  still have this pet peeve: books that say pandas are herbivores.

I know the fact that pandas eat meat is relatively recent, so I should probably excuse older books, but here's why the discovery is long overdue.

1. Pandas belong to the order Carnivora.
2. They have the teeth and a digestive system of a carnivore.
3. Which means that they can't possibly get all the protein and nutrients they need from bamboo.
4. We've gotten away with this by saying that they have a slow metabolism or are sedentary. But pandas are not sloths. They swim, climb trees, run...
5. Pandas have been isolated for millions of years. And you tell me that they haven't evolved a more efficient digestive system to eat bamboo?
6. They're born tiny. The mother's milk has to raise a baby panda from the size of a naked mole rat (kind of looks like it, too) to a full size panda. And she produces it on bamboo? Please.
7. We know they're either related to bears or raccoons, both of which eat meat.
8. Just because we (almost) never see them eat meat doesn't mean they don't. How many wild pandas do we see, anyway?

It's not just bird eggs, fish, and small rodents, people. Take a look at this.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/wildlife/8984323/Wild-panda-spotted-eating-meat-in-China.html

It's eating a dead wildebeest.


And I love how researchers there are not surprised. "We occasionally see bones of dead animals in pandas' excrement during our years of field work."


I really should ease up on the general public.