Are pandas the most misunderstood animal? - Lucy Cooke

455,678 views ・ 2024-01-09

TED-Ed


Please double-click on the English subtitles below to play the video.

00:07
In the late 1930s, a grand panda drama unfolded at the Chicago Zoo.
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Su-Lin, who had been a media darling since she was a cub,
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passed away.
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Zookeepers were already in the process
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of procuring another female panda named Mei Mei,
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and they were determined to find her a mate before tragedy struck again.
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So when they acquired a prospective suitor named Mei Lan,
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it seemed their troubles were over.
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Magazines monitored their progress,
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and the public eagerly awaited the patter of tiny panda paws.
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But the wait dragged on.
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At first, headlines declared that Mei Mei was "getting nowhere" with her love life.
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But eventually zookeepers realized their significant slip-up:
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both bears were male.
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This is just one of many mistakes humans have made when it comes to pandas.
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We've incorrectly classified them as raccoons,
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misrepresented them as cuddly vegetarians,
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and— since the doomed union of Mei Mei and Mei Lan—
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declared them as incompetent lovers.
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Some people have taken this even further,
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suggesting it's remarkable this sex-shy species
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has been able to sustain themselves at all.
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However, this common perception of pandas having low libidos
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actually has more to do with human incompetence.
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When it comes to breeding pandas in captivity,
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zookeepers face multiple challenges.
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As the Chicago case suggests, it can be tricky to figure out a panda's sex.
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Their external genitals don't appear until they're a few months old,
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and once visible, they look very similar.
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This forces zookeepers to rely on inconsistent methods,
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like trying to measure the distance between the anus and genitals,
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or simply going by feel.
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And even when males and females are paired up correctly,
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chemistry isn't guaranteed.
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In one case at the Moscow Zoo,
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a female bear that had been isolated from other animals
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proved more interested in zookeepers than other pandas.
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Complicating things further,
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female pandas can only be impregnated 1 to 3 days each year
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due to their incredibly short ovulation window.
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Zookeepers try to track fertility levels by measuring the hormones in their urine,
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but this data is often cryptic to decipher and messy to capture.
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Females have also evolved the ability to reabsorb their own fetuses,
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meaning that even a successful impregnation can be reversed.
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The difficulty of breeding pandas has reinforced the idea
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that they're not naturally inclined to procreate.
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But there's a huge gap between how these animals behave in captivity
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and the privacy of the wild.
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Prowling through her home territory,
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a female panda rubs her anal glands on tree trunks to attract mates,
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then waits in the treetops bleating as loudly as she can.
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Soon enough, males crowd around the tree and compete for her attention
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by seeing who can pee the highest.
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Suitors adopt a variety of poses in these competitions,
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including the "squat," "legcock," and "handstand."
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They're also known to dab urine behind their ears
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to broadcast their virility through the breeze.
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Once a female picks a winner,
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the mating pair will often have sex over 40 times in a single afternoon.
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At these rates, you might expect panda populations to be booming,
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especially since panda sperm is incredibly potent.
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But females' short ovulation cycles and ability to reabsorb fetuses
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keep the population in check.
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In the wild, young pandas are usually able to witness at least one breeding season
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before reaching sexual maturity,
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giving them time to learn the rituals of seduction.
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But in captivity, pandas are never able to learn these customs.
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And while breeders have tried to kick start young pandas' sexual awakenings
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by showing them footage of mating elders and offering them doses of Viagra,
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none of these strategies have worked consistently.
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The most reliable approach they've found is artificial insemination,
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which has dramatically increased the captive population
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in the past few decades.
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But if pandas are so much better at reproducing in the wild,
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one has to ask why are conservation efforts so focused on breeding them.
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Maybe our time would be better spent
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protecting the pandas' natural environments,
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giving them all the space they need to get down to business.
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