Giant Pandas
From Floor Coverings
Contents |
Giant Pandas and Their Bamboo
Where do pandas live?
Pandas are integrally linked with bamboo. It is virtually the only thing they will eat. Pandas in reserves and zoos may take in other food that they have been accustomed to. Giant Pandas are so tied to bamboo in the wild that they will have groves that they visit over and over, at different times of the year. It's like our favorite wine grapes -- sometimes we enjoy wines from different small areas of a certain region. With Giant Pandas, if the groves of their favorite bamboo go down, wither or change in some way, they may starve. Farmers cultivate bamboo in China, but these groves grow so rapidly and they are "domesticated" groves that have nothing to do with wild pandas. Bamboo is becoming popular worldwide as a green and rapidly renewable resource for many types of flooring and other items like furniture and kitchen accessories. Unfortunately, there aren't many wild pandas left. There is also some controversy from a few wildlife experts that it is far too expensive to take care of pandas and that some of the money should be used in other conservation efforts. These few experts suggest that it may be best to just let the Giant Pandas die out and become extinct.
You Can't Have One Without The Other
Giant Pandas and their bamboo seem to be linked together in the media. They are iconic. One wonders if Giant Pandas weren't so appealing, how much people would go out of their way to conserve the few we have left. Although domestic groves of bamboo are grown for the home improvement industry, some farmers may expand into the more rural areas of the country and cut down wild groves of bamboo, or just domesticate it, and this reduces the groves that are available to the Giant Pandas. The economy of bamboo harvesting is very important to local farmers and their families. And in today's world, global warming is a huge concern, or should be, to everyone. Giant bamboo is a very important green resource that we now use in many different ways. Because it's a grass, it grows far more rapidly than trees used for hardwood flooring and furniture and houses.
Why Are They Important?
Anytime a species goes extinct or is on the highly endangered list, it is a great loss for us all. Who knows what the loss of even a single species can mean in the chain of life? If some humans use a resource to excess, just because they want to renovate their house and put in new flooring, for instance, then it is a loss to all humans. For everything we use and make, there are substitutes that come at a far less loss than losing a species. Bamboo is a fantastic renewable resource for flooring and many other items, and we don't have to have one, with the exclusion of another.
