After two pandas presented by mainland China to Taiwan failed to mate naturally, the zoo in Taipei resorted to artificial insemination. As people spend huge sums to protect this pampered species, many other animal species are on the way to extinction. Such biased protection is not respect for nature.
Pandas are known for their extremely slow reproductive cycle. A female panda cannot bear its first cub until she is five years old and will not come into rut within the following two years. Pandas’ primary food source, bamboo, also has a slow renewal cycle, and each variety of bamboo will bloom and die all once, leaving a meager diet for pandas for up to a decade, if only one variety of bamboo is available in the area.
China has so far set up 67 natural reserve areas for pandas, 40 of which are located in Sichuan province. Over the past 30 years, World Wildlife Fund (WWF) has invested more than 150 million RMB (23.8 million USD) to the preservation of pandas.
Meanwhile the Baiji (Chinese River Dolphin), a freshwater dolphin found only in the Yangtze River, was already labeled extinct in 2007. In addition, protection of golden monkeys and South China tigers lags far behind the measures given to the pandas. These and many other endangered species may die out due to lack of funds and public concern.
Translated and summarized by Tong Jun and Lindsay Butt