OK, am I stupid? OK, yes I am, but 20 years ago, wasn't there talk about not enough bamboo for the Panda?

Question

I remember hearing that there was a shortage of bamboo and there was a big fear of this killing the panda? What happend to that? Now lots of things are being made out of bamboo. What changed?

Answer 1

The Panda eat special type of bamboo, for goodness's.

Answer 2

Bamboo has a natural "time bomb" built into it's DNA.  Every 120 years or so, all the bamboo dies.  There's nothing humans have been able to do, to prevent the mass die off of bamboo every 120 years.  Some species of bamboo have die offs every 60 years or so.

Panda bears would just move to another area, and eat a less favorable type of bamboo, during the die off.  Now panda bears have almost no habitat.  Migrating to a new area, to eat a new type of bamboo for a year or so is not an option.

Bamboo is a grass.  Some bamboos can grow three FEET in a single day.  Bamboo is a very good material to make wood products out of.  Highly renewable.

The problem for pandas is when the bamboo flowers, and then dies.  Drastic, and sudden loss of their food source.

Right now the bamboo in India is flowering (and will die off).  However this is causing an entirely different problem.  The flowers are a great food source for rats.  So the rat population is exploding in India.  In turn the rats are consuming grains, and rice, in a country that is already having food shortage problems.  It has the potential to explode into a very ugly problem.

By the way, your certainly not stupid.  You were smart enough to ask the question, and actually learn something about bamboo and panda bears!

~Garnet

Homesteading/Farming over 20 years

Active wildlife study over 40 years