Giant pandas cannot properly digest bamboo

[Still Waters]

The mystery of why giant pandas are forced to spend 14 hours a day eating foods has finally been solved - they can only digest around 17 per cent of the bamboo they swallow.

Researchers found their gut bacteria are not the type for efficiently breaking down bamboo. In fact they are built to eat meat.

http://www.telegraph...tists-find.html

[Imaginarynumber1]

Sucks to be them.

[Bendy Demon]

Two million years on a supposedly vegetarian diet. Something doesn't seem quite right here.

If pandas are, and always have been, well adapted to meat eating or at least a somewhat omnivorous diet then what happened?

Did their food sources leave? If so were the pandas simply unable to follow the food? Maybe this is why it is so difficult to breed them because they are not getting the nourishment they need. I don't know....just because they managed doesn't mean that they were very healthy.

Why not try giving a captive panda a little meat or something to see how it affects their well-being because after this long you'd think the pandas would have signs of a compartmentalized stomach developing to handle the plant fibers or something. Maybe they'd look different if their nourishment was enhanced.

[jarjarbinks]

they should give them protein shakes

[Imaginarynumber1]

Two million years on a supposedly vegetarian diet. Something doesn't seem quite right here.

If pandas are, and always have been, well adapted to meat eating or at least a somewhat omnivorous diet then what happened?

Did their food sources leave? If so were the pandas simply unable to follow the food? Maybe this is why it is so difficult to breed them because they are not getting the nourishment they need. I don't know....just because they managed doesn't mean that they were very healthy.

Why not try giving a captive panda a little meat or something to see how it affects their well-being because after this long you'd think the pandas would have signs of a compartmentalized stomach developing to handle the plant fibers or something. Maybe they'd look different if their nourishment was enhanced.

Most species die out. There are thousands that went extinct because they did not adapt to various ecological conditions. Unfortunately, the giant panda maybe be another.

[RoofGardener]

they should give them protein shakes

Bacon sandwiches !

[Infernal Gnu]

Say what? This would be like cats switching from eating mice to eating bamboo. Insane. Aren't there enough local peasants around for these creatures to feed on?

[paperdyer]

I know I wouldn't want to have sex if I had indigestion all the time. Cure this and maybe more Pandas.

[jarjarbinks]

#6 just like humans, instead of hunting preys and getting food, we just go to McDo and become fat (extinct one day too just like the pandas)

[BeastieRunner]

So, humans aren't the only animal to eat food not good for themselves? That's kind of funny!

Edited May 20, 2015 by BeastieRunner

[She-ra]

Here's another article on this:

Even though bamboo is their main food source, giant pandas are horrible at digesting it, a new study of their gut bacteria finds.

A look at the giant-panda gut microbiome (bacteria living in the stomach and intestines) showed that the animals have relatively few bacteria that help digest fibrous plants such as bamboo. Instead, most of the panda's gut is covered with bacteria such as Escherichia/Shigella and Streptococcus, organisms typically found in meat eaters, the researchers said.

Source: http://www.livescience.com/50871-pandas-gut-bacteria-bamboo-digestion.html

[Wickian]

Well, they better hope they survive long enough to adapt.

[Podo]

At this point I refuse to believe that pandas aren't purposely sabotaging their own survival chances.