The panda’s preference

“…according to Megan Owen, a conservation specialist at the San Diego Zoo, there is a possible evolutionary explanation for the panda’s seemingly foolish preference for bamboo: lack of competition. When pandas split off from the bear lineage about 3 million years ago, tasty and nutritious cuisine like meat, fruit, and nuts may have been difficult to obtain while bamboo was ubiquitous — a wide-open ecological niche. So there were two choices: Exert some serious effort to get the good stuff, or munch away on a seemingly inexhaustible supply of woody grasses.

The panda accommodated its vegetarianism with a few physical adaptations — enlarged chewing muscles (those adorable jowls), their famous ‘thumbs’, and a slightly modified digestive system (though still far more similar to a carnivore’s than to an herbivore’s). But the most notable adaptations were behavioral. Pandas must minimize energy expenditure in every aspect of their lives: limiting locomotion and mating periods, having a low surface area-to-volume ratio (i.e., being fat) to conserve heat, and sleeping as much as possible.”

[Citation: Reproduced from Could Pandas Be an Evolutionary Mistake — or Proof of an Intelligent Designer?, an article by Lizzie Buchen in Discover magazine, published online on 5 August 2008.]