Is this a pre-Christmas Poetry Competion thread?

you could start a Denier's Advent Calendar?

Walruses, Polar Bears and Attenboroughs.

Which one of these faces extinction?

Clipe, all have demonstrated success in passing their genes to successive generations, but only Attenborough has learned how to shave off his whiskers.

Being clean shaven, may explain why Attenborough has never been shot with a dart gun. This is an evolutionary dead end that has never been explored.

Speaking of evolutionary dead ends.

Has anyone ever dart-gunned a Panda?

Dec 9, 2019 at 4:29 AM clipe

Almost certainly yes! But the Chinese are unlikely to admit it. Animals in captivity are normally tranquilised at close range with a blow pipe as opposed to a dart gun.

Pandas in zoos around the world are still owned by China, and have to be returned.

The Chinese are very strict about enforcing "their" copyrights on pandas, and would not want the cute and cuddly image of pandas ruined by stories of them needing to be dart gunned for the safety of vets and zoo staff.

I always thought it odd that the Chinese pay so much attention to the Giant Panda, because the Red Panda might be considered more appropriate for a communist state. Perhaps they fear being blamed for allowing the Giant Panda to become extinct as a result of starvation during a mass bamboo flowering event and subsequent die off. I remember being taken to one of the Chinese Institutes where they breed Giant Pandas; I wish I hadn't.

Jun 7, 2020 at 8:11 AM AK

I think it was probably Blue Peter or Animal Magic that introduced me to Chi Chi, as far as i was aware at the time, the only Giant Panda. I had no idea then that China discovered the PR value of pandas, and the US had refused a passport. Wikipedia reveals her special source of food and some explanation for captive breeding problems.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chi_Chi_(giant_panda)

The WWF is now stuck with the Panda as its Logo, but is one of the best examples of communism exploiting capitalism while pretending to care.