Living Fossil – Panda

Panda was the mascot of Beijing Olympic Games in 2008; and it is also the national treasure of China. A species that only lives in China is endangered. There are “only 1,590 pandas in the wild” (Graham, 2007, para.9), and the Chinese people call panda is the living fossil, because “the giant panda is believed to have made its first appearance during the late Pliocene or early Pleistocene, perhaps no more than two to three million years ago.” (Panda’s History, n. d.) Therefore, the giant panda is an old specie that is going to lose its life ability, such as breeding ability and moving ability; and it is one reason that causes panda endangered. It is really a dangerous sign for panda’s survival; and it also alerts Chinese government that it has to try to do something to protect Panda necessary. It is really a good time to save panda because UNESCO has put panda on the World Heritage list and also everyone in the world knows panda exactly because the Beijing Olympic Games. In fact, there is something we can do to save panda. Government should build pandas’ protection areas and formulate some policies and laws to save panda; government has to improve the environment of the protection area and also they should use some public commercial to tell people how important that panda is; and government should give enough funds to scientists who are study in panda.

According to above, “there are only 1590 pandas in the wild” (Graham, 2007, para. 9), and according to Wildlife at animal corner, the first panda found in Sichuan, that why Sichuan has some protection areas (Panda’s history, n. d.). And after that, Chinese people start to study it and found it is an old specie that only can live in China, the reason is China has lots of bamboo, that is only food that pandas can eat. And also pandas are already staying in the earth 2 or 3 million years; this is why we call it: a living fossil. It is amazing because no species can stay on the earth such a long time. And recently, Chinese government sent small amount of panda to other countries, such as Thailand, Taiwan and England. And then, panda became famous and favorite around the world, because it was so cute and happy.

First, the Chinese government should build pandas’ protection area and formulate some policies and laws to save panda. Government should build more pandas’ protection areas. Moreover, there are some protection areas in China already, such as Wolong Base and Sichuan pandas’ protection; we have to rebuild them because they cannot face on some big earthquake or something else. (Macartney, 2007.) It is really important, because they are losing some of their abilities. We have to build it to study them, to know them, and to analyze them because it is the only way that we can easily do some research. For example, in Sichuan, China, there is a big protection area for pandas, scientists can easily study them, and we can see clearly that it has some really important impacts, such as they know how to make test-tube panda babies; scientists study this process because they are really in trouble for how to help panda gets a baby. Therefore, a protection area is really good for panda and good for us to know them. The government can create a new law to protect the panda in the wild. That illegal hunter will get a heavy fine if they kill pandas, or will be put them into the jail. And also, the government should formulate some policies and laws to control the hunter or forester and protect panda. We know that panda’s body can make very useful medicine to treat some illness problems. Therefore, some illegal hunter will kill panda to sell and earn a lot of money. And also as we know, bamboo is the only food for panda. For that reason, we have to protect bamboo; we can rebuild the farmland for bamboo, and also we can use publicizing to tell people that bamboo is important, even though it is really popular to sell in China. Those ways can be helpful to save panda.

Second, government has to improve the environment of the protection area, and also they should use some public commercial to tell people how important the panda is. Recently the Sichuan research base of panda breeding has became a famous place that all the people want to visit. As a result, Sichuan’s environment has become worse and worse. Lots of people want to go there to see panda; they will drive car or other transportations, so that the air pollution will become more. Therefore, the government should improve the quality of the environment, which can help panda to survive. And also government should broadcast some public commercials about panda that tell people how important the panda is to us. They can use newspaper and magazine to publicize the information of protecting panda. Publicizing is the powerful method to tell people how dangerous the situation is that panda faces on right now. Publicizing also can tell or teach people what they should do to protect and helping panda. And using this way can bring a lot of donation from the whole world because there are so many people who love to help endanger animals in the world. Therefore, newspapers and magazines have to go into overdrive to focus those protecting panda publicizing because panda represents China, which looks like Engels representing America; protecting panda is the same way to protect Chinese status in the world.

Third, government should give enough funds to scientists who are study in panda and protect bamboo as much as possible as they can. Scientists can study about what people can do to help panda to resume their abilities, especially breeding ability, because if panda cannot breed babies, they will become extinct. According to the above, building protection areas can help scientists to study about pandas, and they already know how to help panda to have a baby. However, it is not enough, because this solution (test-tube baby) costs too much money and also it takes a lots of labor power to do. People need to know pandas’ habits, such as eating habits, moving habits and so on, which can help pandas to resume their abilities, which they almost have lost already. As a matter of fact, people cannot protect pandas or other animals, which are endangered, because people have other things to do, especially during this global business crisis. Thus, scientists should show how to protect panda as early as possible, so that we can do some powerful things to protect pandas as soon as possible. And those things require a lot of money; therefore, government should give them enough funds to support them to study and do some researches. And also there are still some websites give people a chance to donate online, such as Smithsonian zoo park (Giant Panda Conservation Fund, n. d.). According to it, “Tai Shan is one of the Zoo’s newest conservation success stories. With as few as 1,600 giant pandas living in the wild, each birth is critical. By learning more about them and helping them to breed, scientists are working to prevent giant panda extinction” (n.d. para. 2). Through that website, we can see all the successful examples that show us that we can do something for panda; we can do something for endangered animals.

Some economists says that panda is too old; it has already lived on the earth for about 2 or 3 million years. And those appearances are unusual: no one can stay in the earth for 2 or 3 million years. We do not have to waste billons of dollars to protect dying specie because it is natural extinction. However, it is really necessary to save panda and other endangered species because it is human’s responsibility and also we can get a lot information from panda. According to Best Chance to protect giant pandas, there are only more than 1,000 wild pandas in the world. And it is really endangered. “The Giant pandas need both high- and low-elevation forests as well as dispersal corridors.” (n. d. para. 7) And they eat particular food – bamboo (n.d.). Moreover, following the human’s industry development, all the pollutions has become more serious, and it is really harmful for animals’ lives. So that, no matter, it is Beijing Olympic Games mascot or not; we still have to protect them and save them. Moreover, saving panda has more benefits. First, it can be a good story to teach children that protect endangered animals. Second, it can improve the human’s quality of life in some ways, such as donations or something else, we can show to other people that we are force on endangered animals. It is really good and necessary to save panda.

In conclusion, thousands of species are endangered, some of them are really treasure and some of them are not. Why? According to Stott, saving endangered animals are not a easy thing to do, because we have to consider a lot of part, such as environment, funds, labor powers and location or something. If those objectives are no problems, what do people think is the most important and complex problem that we should the replace. (2007) so that, saving endangered animal is not only a sentence; it is really a hard work that we should to force on. Panda is really uncommon specie in the world right now. They have lots of historical dates and they are old enough to be called a living fossil. They eat only bamboo and they move less. They are going to lose their living abilities and they have become too lazy. Those problems that we need to solve. However, the whole world is beginning to develop; the world population is rising very quickly; and pollution is becoming the biggest problem around the earth, even though our friends, animals, are dying very quickly. We say to them “goodbye” every day, every second. During a long time, suddenly, people realize that we should protect our friends. Pandas’ extinction is only an example of many endangered animals. Therefore, protecting pandas is also protecting our ecosystem.




Reference:
Best Chance to protect giant pandas (2003. March, 26) Innovations report. Retrieved on May 1, 2009 from http://www.innovations-report.de/

Giant Panda Conservation Fund. (n. d). Smithsonian National Zoological Park Retrieved on June 1, 2009 from: http://nationalzoo.si.edu/

Macartney, Jane. (2007, December 15). Panda pioneers teach babies how to survive call of the wild. The Times (London). Retrieved on May 26, 2009 form Lexis-Nexis database http://www.lexisnexis.com/

Simmons Graham. (2007, August 19). In black and white; China. The sun herald (Sydney, Australia). Retrieved on June 1st, 2009 from Lexis-Nexis database. http://www.lexisnexis.com/

Panda history (n.d.). Wildlife on animal corner. Retrieved on June 17, 2009 from http://www.animalcorner.co.uk/

Stott, P. (2008, August, 23) Problem pandas: Why it’s so hard to save this endangered species. The Advertiser (Australia) Retrieved on June 1st, 2009 from LexisNexis datebase, http://www.lexisnexis.com/