Your Life as a Giant Panda

[@11Survivor]

I heard somewhere that the reason pandas may not mate in zoos is simply because they are awate of being observed. Apparently a male and female panda refused to mate for years until the staff eventually stopped caring, and then they did it one year when there was no one really observing them.

[@starstorm1267]

They just want privacy, lmao

[@Martin-vu1do]

@@11Survivor its a mix between that and they don’t have their natural S-stimuli. Fighting with another male for dominance while the female watches is typically how the “juices get flowing” in nature with pandas.

[@jmw1500]

@@Martin-vu1do Nah. It is that scientists never thought that animals under observation act differently. Your answer makes much more sense.

[@Rainbow_Sish_Kabob]

I love how you called out the backlash against panda conservation. It’s not the panda’s fault that people don’t understand them.

[@andrewb6194]

But he unironically says that humans are an “Invasive Species”, which is anti-indigenous, eco-fascist rhetoric that only surves to HURT conservation.

[@Dookieman1975]

@@andrewb6194… huh

[@RobertP.Trebor]

​@@andrewb6194You are both correct and also extremely whiny

[@averagetectonicplateenjoyer]

@@andrewb6194at some point those groups were an invasive species its just animals and plants had time to evolve around them the issue is the current humans of all groups are invasive and due to the speed at which we are advancing no species have the time to properly evolve in response

[@FinMertons]

​@@andrewb6194 I guess you must be so pasisonate about this issue given your use of multiple jargon. Therefore, I must attack your character since I don't understand any of those words and it hurts my ego... Nah, I'm just messing with you. I would like to hear more about your thoughts about this topic.

[@qualitymcbro8452]

The thing about "pandas getting in their own way" always confuses me. They're the oldest lineage of bears. They were doing fine on their own. Just let them hop to it in peace, bring back the tigers that kept livestock and takin grazing in check and they'll thrive.

[@deinsilverdrac8695]

Well tiger would also kill panda Just stop putting empty cities and entire monoculture of rice and cutting down their forest. They once were quite widespread and where found in other countries too (Bhutan, Nepal, Myanmar).

[@wilhelmburgdorf9309]

@@deinsilverdrac8695well in a country like China where there are a ton of people you have to house and feed, it’s kind of a necessity to have cities and rice farms, the alternative is making Beijing an even more dense polluted hellhole or spreading out into suburbs which would ruin the environment even more

[@deinsilverdrac8695]

@@wilhelmburgdorf9309 False argument as the issue is still here. Many cities are empty, and there's no need to be 1 fucking billion in the first place. Nor to try to kill every bird of eastern Asia, all tiger, rhino, shark, whale, leopard, fishes, elephant or be the source of most of global poaching. And don't lie about that saying that China only produce what it need thats fucking idiotic. They export many product in high quantity, they're the fucking factory of the World. Destroying, forest, mountains, rivers, ocean. Not just in their country but in all the World.

[@clydedoris5002]

Tigers require an obscene amount of territory

[@nguyenduyphuc3924]

⁠@@deinsilverdrac8695I’ll give you that the Chinese are horrible with their eating habits, but wtf do you suggest they do about that 1 billion people? Gather them all up and dump them all in the ocean? The last time they tried doing anything to slow down the population growth in a reasonable manner (aka not genocide), it led to a major shift in gender balance and caused many to can’t find a female partner to marry to. On and don’t forget the western media cried authoritarian. Don’t get me wrong, the CCP is fucking awful, but blaming them for a normal population growth is delulu. China is comparatively the same size of Europe, with about 300 millions more people. But remember that China have been here for a lonnng time. Like unfathomably long. Around the time that the Egyptian start building pyramid is when China started building its empires. Comparatively, Europe was basically still in their tribal stage. It’s natural that their population reached a billion for being around that long. Hell if anything, had it not been for their bloody history (both ancient relatively modern) , their population would be double or triple that.

[@transnewt]

fun fact: before humans came along, pandas had to deal with a myriad of competitors and predators, such as buffalo, black bear, sun bear, leopards, elephants, and even tigers. so yeah. they were pretty capable, and probably still are.

[@Oinker-Sploinker]

Apparently tiny little sun bears can fight off large predators and supposedly even killed a tiger, a panda can and will fight and probably will win most of those confrontations against most predators.

[@meatloafer2762]

I remember learning that pandas have one of the strongest bite forces in the animal kingdom, which is helped by their constant eating of bamboo, and they're able to crush bones with their bite

[@Theofficial_MechaShinstudios]

Fun fact: youtube comments teaches more than science classes or whatever it's called to teach students about animals

[@transnewt]

@@Theofficial_MechaShinstudios 1) correct 2) not all of them

[@Theofficial_MechaShinstudios]

@@transnewt NOOOOOOOOOO

[@Sly-Moose]

Turns out all he wanted was total privacy in the wild. Makes sense since they like isolation.

[@NamuTheOrca]

I was fully prepared for the video to end the way it was headed, with the misconception that pandas are "dumb" and don't even know how to mate. The 180 at the end made me happy. Good research, I've been really enjoying this series! Mixing humor and good research.

[@cuttlefishn.w.2705]

Lol was kinda hoping you'd show the pandas' awkwardness and discomfort in being expected to mate in front of an audience. It could've been anything else about their unnatural environment, but I think it's telling that captive pandas never successfully mated until quarantine

[@IsabelleBourque-q4p]

That’s bc pandas are shy and like to mate in places where it’s quiet

[@mageofdoomsie1598]

@@IsabelleBourque-q4pwell there’s another factor too. There’s a mating ritual that pandas go through that we can’t realistically recreate in a zoo environment. Two males will fight in front of a female, which triggers her ovulation. The victor gets to mate with her. So pandas are technically ready to mate all spring, they just need a panda fight club to trigger fertility.

[@abdulazizrex]

I love how you used a naked mole rat to depict a baby panda.😂

[@LukaLoncar-p5o]

That was rude....it wasent even a mole rat😡

[@casper6014]

@@LukaLoncar-p5oit is rude of you to misspell wasn’t!!!

[@cjsantiago4035]

@@LukaLoncar-p5oHorrible grammar, 2/10.

[@riyoszu]

@@LukaLoncar-p5obad aim

[@RocioDiazS]

It’s scientific name is Heterocephalus Glaber and it is true they do look like this in fact I found that it is actually from Nat Geo LOL

[@AntiAntagonist]

During the pandemic captive pandas became more interested in mating. Guess they just needed to be left alone.

[@dugoranges6552]

It's crazy that people assumed pandas were bad at sex when in reality they just weren't into reproducing in caged environments

[@AhidoMikaro]

It is not even the caged environment. They just seem to extremely value the competition. Most likely if we allowed this to occur even in a zoo, it will work out. Not sure if they have tried it yet, but in general caretakers don't like doing such thhings, for ironic, if not hypocritical reasons.

[@Nerdstickman-rv2ei]

Yes

[@skinnygirlstretchmarks]

because that’s what we were told

[@WeldonSirloin]

The complete opposite of me.

[@phengooogaming]

Dawg wtf is that pfp.

[@connordarvall8482]

You know, I'm starting to think the pandas don't want to mate with a bunch of creatures with forward-facing eyes in the vicinity. I'm also starting to suspect that they don't possess telepathy and therefore cannot sense if our motives are benign or malign.

[@brianboru2762]

That and I think the act of spooking off other males is part of the mating ritual. Basically, she likes it when men fight over her and he doesn't want a girl he didn't have to brawl with 2-3 other dudes for.

[@Retired20244]

Today I was reminded that Pandas literally evolved immunity to fucking CYANIDE but their guts couldn't evolve to handle digesting cellulose

[@kitkat_ricecat]

as funny as that sounds, your comment made me realize that developing resistance against 1 compound is easier than overhauling your entire digestive system

[@tjarkschweizer]

It's almost as if becoming herbivorous is not that easy and is actually a big evolutionary leap. I mean animals were doing fine for millions of years being exclusively carnivorous.

[@Retired20244]

@@tjarkschweizer Yes we’re all very much aware of that but doesn’t make it any less hilarious a concept lol, almost as if it’s a joke

[@Retired20244]

@@kitkat_ricecat fr fr it’s crazy how intricate evolution is and how complex and highly tuned our digestive systems are, we don’t give our gut bacteria enough credit too!

[@tinobemellow]

@@Retired20244 frankly, gut bacteria precedes the brain, evolutionarily speaking.

[@lampylightbulb]

Pandas in the wild don't just eat bamboo either. It's the main part of their diet yeah, but they do still eat insects and scavenge if the opportunity arises.

[@SaiyanGamer95]

I think I remember reading that meat comprises 1% of their total diet. Too much meat can cause digestive problems. They're obligate herbivores.

[@lampylightbulb]

@@SaiyanGamer95 they're not obligate Herbivores, they're supplimentive Herbavores, meaning like many herbavores if they're low on a specific type of nutrients they will go out of their way to eat things outside of their normal diet. I suggest 'Casual Geographic' he makes a whole video on how there are not many obligate herbavores and obligate carnivores out there. It's fascinating and mildly disturbing.

[@Krona-fb4dn]

Something I find strangely absent is the fact that giant panda conservation was a success. They’re no longer endangered but were moved to threatened and this happened awhile ago.

[@BumboLooks]

Not really a success when they are still completely reliant on humans for reproduction.

[@ariafiresong]

@@BumboLooks Well, if humans would move their cities out of the love shack...

[@mazin_iq1499]

@@BumboLooksI’d call it a success because no way the humans would abandon such a fan favorite animal like the panda.

[@EliteMax2]

Life as an Orca would be pretty awesome. They have an insane variety of diets, hunting techniques, language and culture between pods. Some just hunt salmon and can know which species it is by sonar and determine if it's their favorite one or not. Others beach themselves to eat seals on beaches. I know you haven't made an aquatic animal yet so It'd be cool to see how you'd adapt your drawing style to under the sea. Love your vids!

[@Jamestoland]

Thank you! Think orca would be the first fully aquatic animal I do

[@SlapstickGenius23]

@@Jamestoland I love orcas too. They’re best suited to the wild despite the overfishing of their seas by food corporations.

[@fyzix4277]

I have to point out that the voiceover was particularly quiet on this video so the sound effects gave me a jump scare every time. Other than that, I'm impressed on how quickly you've been uploading these animated videos, I love them!

[@Jamestoland]

Thank you! Seems like the sound effects were a bit too loud on this one

[@firegator6853]

Using naked mole rat for the second panda sibling just made me burst out laughing

[@DanteTorn]

I think the message here is profound and it's a shame so many people in these comments seem to be unable to comprehend that pandas have existed for millions of years and the human development messing that up is an extremely recent thing compared to that.

[@chaoticdusk1316]

I love how even in this style of video you still actually mention the fact that panda breed just fine in the wild and we are in fact the problem.

[@thenitpicker2176]

Why chase down food when there’s perfectly stationary bamboo literally everywhere 😂

[@wolfyboy]

To grow your brain and evolve. Siting on your ass and power eating overgrown grass is only viable because there are nothing that hunts them!

[@alexplaysgames_2]

But when do I start to learn Kung fu?

[@chancegivens9390]

I always wondered "if they say they're bad at surviving, then why have they been around for so long?" Turns out they themselves are a decently successful species, its just humanity screws things up for them, and then blames them for not being able to adapt. Great video as always man!

[@chancegivens9390]

I had forgotten that i wrote a comment prior to this one!

[@NIGBEATS]

That supposed twist at the end kinda blew my mind.

[@Bytional]

Panda now is not in danger anymore, because these newly discovers, Chinese researchers releasing them into wild more and more, and keep tracking on all the wild panda, only intervening when they having twins(save the doomed one), now there are more than 2000 wild panda.

[@Oldladywithastick]

2000 is not indangered?

[@Bytional]

@@Oldladywithastick it's considered "Vulnerable", a lv above endangered.

[@MerouaneHdd]

@@Bytional point stands they are still in danger, being a hair away from the "indangered" status isnt good.

[@skittlemilks1614]

@MerouaneHdd Point doesn’t stand. They are literally no longer classified as endangered, according to the WWF. It’s a different category. Google is your friend.

[@glidershower]

​@@MerouaneHdd Baby steps, my friend. Learn from the video, let Mother Nature and Father Time do their thing.

[@vincentx2850]

Given how woody and difficult to digest bamboo is, normal herbivores have a hard time digesting them. Pandas however, basically work like a juicing machine, ignoring the tough cellulose altogether and extract nutrients from bamboo juice. This is far more efficient than trying to work around the tough material.

[@soldecle]

i was gonna say why do panda eat bamboo if its so hard to digest and cant sustain them but i realize human do the same we ignore food that are full of nutrients to consume foods we like "better" just for the taste💀😭 they're just like us

[@FatHalibutz32]

Bamboo grows so fast!!! In a perfect world, something big and cool has to eat it!

[@VVVU2x]

I wish I was addicted to plants because of the taste 😞

[@JingleJangle256]

Scientists/Zoo Handlers: Why aren’t you mating??? Pandas: Dude, get out of here. You’re killing the mood.

[@bunnyflop3864]

I love the way this video was done! Nature is intelligent enough, it’s just humans who aren’t intelligent enough to understand that nobody wants to breed in a cage.

[@ThatGuyUpThere]

not really, even without us pandas are a species doomed to extinction, they are too overspecialized to survive any drastic change.

[@techpriestsalok8119]

⁠@@ThatGuyUpThere I mean not really? They eat what amounts to grass, they aren’t going extinct anymore than wild cows would be without humans. Also that dramatic change happens once or twice every million years so without humans we are talking upwards of 500,000 years before they have to deal with it.

[@Oinker-Sploinker]

@@ThatGuyUpThere That's most large animals, Put lions in Australia and they'll die out, Take the ice from a polar bear it dies out, Take out abundant vegetation and elephants die out, etc. Even a group of above -average humans would not last a week if you took us away from our urban environment.

[@wolfyboy]

But the thing is, all those animals are.evolved to survive those things, while pandas are evolved to eat and digest meat, but they don't. I don't know why, but I'd put a penny on "to dumb due to millenia of scraping by, so their brain has gone backwards."

[@techpriestsalok8119]

@@wolfyboy exactly how do you think animals evolve to eat something? All animals go through a panda-like stage when they change diets. Also pandas are fairly good at eating bamboo given that’s all they really need to eat. Given that and its ridiculous abundance combined with a super-fast growth and there’s really no reason to say they chose a bad food source. It’s literally the equivalent of being able to eat trees while living in a forest, free food forever.

[@Fixti0n]

So there is this theory going around that Pandas eat bamboo because long ago there was a fire that made all their pray leave, leaving them with nothing to eat. This then forced them to start eating Bamboo, lest they'll starve. But then they found out that bamboo dosnt run from you when you want to eat it, and there is a bunch of it, so they just didnt hunt when the pray came back.

[@WernerBeroux]

... and they couldn't sleep properly since then hence the panda eyes.

[@H4ck3-g6d]

@@WernerBerouxohhhhh, but idk that’s kinda a stretch

[@seisveintiocho-x9e]

You forgot the part here the Panda gets depressed due to being confined in the zoo and has to be given anti-depressant to make him too numb to hurt himself in public.

[@transnewt]

same thing happens to hans they arent special hell it happens with a lot of ankmals. zoos have to try really hard to keep em comfortable.

[@melaniabladeofmiquella]

​@@transnewthow is drugging animals in captivity "working really hard"? Rediculous

[@magdam1508]

@@melaniabladeofmiquella There's also making sure the area the animal lives in is clean and safe and fills the needs, giving the proper diet, reacting to any small changes in behavior or appearance, keeping the animal healthy, regular checkups, providing mental and physical stimulation and probably many more things I can't even think of

[@ronthealmightyratking8206]

Pls make "how to rat" 👉👈 -Ron, The Almighty Rat King

[@fallows4life]

...🥺... 👉👈 🦵🦶 please

[@freeze7894]

👉👈

[@bloodyshark2126]

🧠 ❤️ 🍆

[@AttmozGlaishur]

👈👉

[@chancegivens9390]

Fantastic ending! Thinking about it, it definitely makes sense. If a species is so terrible at survival, then why would they still be around after millions of years.

[@Whammytap]

I freaking love your channel and personally will watch your vids for ANY and EVERY species of animal.

[@Jamestoland]

Thank you! I really appreciate that!

[@ZyrTheMachineGodOfWar]

For a special episode, you should do one that focuses on humans. Not on modern ones, but anything earlier then metal age, focus on their group structure and lives. "You are born into this world blind, barely able to move, and you have a spot on your skull where your bone hasnt even fully developed yet, you cant even hold the weight of your own head. Luckly, mom is there to take care of you, reliant on her for milk, warmth and affection. Also to clean you because you shit all over yourself. You're one of the most helpless babies out of the entire animal kingdom. A few months in your eyes open but still cant see, using sound and your surprisingly strong grip to interact with the world A few months later you've moved on to soft food, and you can be left unattended for more then a few hours at a time Somewhere along the way you start to crawl and you realize you have siblings, as humans are one of the few mammals to not wait until a litter is fully developed to move on to the next, and with such a long developing period, who can blame them. All your siblings are between 2-4 years older then you and your den seems mostly safe and clean, with people outside to ensure your saf- oh wait, a big cat was waiting by the doorway when your older brother wondered outside, dragging him into the darkness never to be seen again. Oh well. You've now entered childhood. You can walk on 2 legs and talk mostly coherently but people dont really listen to you. You learn you live in a small community of family structures, all working together and caring for each other. Your first few years will involve learning about the world, what to eat and what not, how to make things and weave, mend clothes and recognize terrain around you And playing, a lot of playing. You play hide and seek and catch, developing strong muscles along with skills that will help you later in life, as you're mostly an ambush and persistence hunter. Somewhere along the way you will reach sexual maturity, you have hair growing in weird places and you start to see the opposite gender in a different light. You are now a sub-adult human. At this stage you take to more and more learning the necessary skills to support your future family, how to bash rocks together to make knives and arrowheads, how to track prey and how to throw sharp sticks over long distances, how to trap and fish, when the first doesnt work out, how to forage for whrn you're desperate or need to suplement your diet. Its at this stage adults take you hunting so you can hone your first skills. Today's hunt didnt go as planned, but along the way you find a carcass from a more successful hunter. You drag it home, roasting any scraps as well as shattering the bones with rocks to get to the marrow. This will keep you going for now. Your next one goes better, you dont need to sneak close, just close enough to throw accurately. Your forward facing eyes give you good depth perception and help you toss accuately. As the spear hits the animal, it runs off. This is it, this is what you've been training for. You spend the better part of the day chasing the already wounded animal to exhaustion until its slow enough to catch and spear again. But before the adult you're with can slice its neck open and put the animal out of its misery, he stops, and hands you the knife instead. Welcome to the rest of your life. You are now 16 and rapidly approaching middleage, you've learned many skills and you're confident you can support a family, so its time to have children of your own. And so the cycle continues." This went on for longer then i wish it did, shit

[@stereokuuji]

No no.....keep going

[@mintybadger6905]

I don’t read long comments as a rule, but this was great! You’re a good writer - I could hear this guy speaking your words.

[@ZyrTheMachineGodOfWar]

Thanks guys, this was fun to write Wish i woulda changed some things around or mentioned other facts about people here and there but i wasnt sure how long to make it or how much thought to put into it

[@Jamestoland]

Nice haha!

[@DinosaurDude53747]

I got a number of ideas for animals you could make videos on for your channel: great white sharks, mockingbirds, prairie dogs, meerkats, porpoises, emperor penguins, spectacled caimans, cheetahs, sea turtles, Komodo dragons, sloths, cassowaries, and kakapos.

[@DinosaurDude53747]

There are also, black rhinos and ostriches.

[@ameliorateepoch9917]

Red wolves? Lonesome George? Gobi bears? There’s something about critically endangered animals that makes it so much more somber, just lonely but not full on sorrowful.

[@petrfedor1851]

To be fair I would prefer intimite activities in middle of bamboo forest over zoo.

[@MyLeg_Fred]

If you have (or find) a partner, tell her that. I genuinely wanna know what their reaction would be lmao

[@RocioDiazS]

9:32 If you don’t understand the joke about this light colored panda let me explain. This is the Qinling panda which a subspecies of the Giant panda and the only one in captivity ( in this picture) is Qi Zai which means “7th son” for breeding in the Provence on Sept. Great job James Toland, Kkep up the good work 👍

[@quinnruss5541]

The fact that this is the least viewed life video disappoints me, I love the mom hair and the dad mustaches and the angey roars and plenty of stuff

[@solerso68]

Most bear species of bears live on grass in the spring and summer months.. For some reason the Giant Panda stopped hunting for meat entirely. I suspect they were outcompeted by other large predators, especially in that part of the world, by big cats .A population of them , perhaps one small Panda population adapted by living year round on their spring forage.

[@SirMarshalHaig]

And in some centuries or millenia maybe they will be more capable of digesting bamboo and be more active.

[@oxygenenjoyer1]

@@SirMarshalHaig Why would they be more active, wouldn't it make more sense for them to derive more nutrution than less over time from a difficult to digest food like bamboo shoots? The food is ostensibly the same then and now, or so we presume, so why if they're working with more nutrition over time would they get less active?

[@SirMarshalHaig]

@@oxygenenjoyer1 You took what I said and missed my point by turning it 180

[@deimos7784]

​@@oxygenenjoyer1Evolution?

[@Guys_its_me_Chris]

Finally someone said how humans interfered so much with pandas who are specialist.

[@hosaepalvin9795]

hey ill admit i would also be a bit shy to mate in an enclosed habitat with a different species coming and going being able to see me do my stuff

[@flanthief]

Convenient timing for this video. Le Le of the Mandai Zoo in Singapore just recently got rehomed to China after being the first panda born at the zoo. Pandas born in zoos usually get sent back to China after two years when they become independent and rejected by their mom

[@adonisrobbins_nonis]

The rhetoric about pandas being chinese ambassadors is incredibly hilarious and 100 percent true lol.

[@DuckLord12]

You don’t have to do this but you could do your life as a cat, specifically in Egypt.

[@Mega_vegeta]

Try hunting food everyday to survive. The thing with Bamboo is it wont run away from you so all you have to do to survive is eat and mate.

[@wolfyboy]

If that was good for them you would think they would adapt more after a few millions year, instead of needing all day to eat and digest.

[@comradecetacean1927]

Baby panda's climbing skills aren't that redundant. Baby pandas(of football size) in the wild have been observed to be sleeping for several hours wrapped up around the highest branch of trees while their mother is out foraging. It's assumed to be a defense strategy against ground predators when they're old enough to climb but not old enough to travel with mom.

[@sonicanvaspost6867]

Another fun fact: pandas are near-sighted. Climbing trees has been their survival mechanism to avoid other pandas because they can’t see each other from a mile away So just in case you saw that football-sized baby Oreo approaching and climbing on you, they were basically thinking you were a tree

[@ismifaruq]

Man love that ending side note. Really change my view on forcing panda to have sex craze a couple of years back

[@TotallyInAra]

It’s amusing how everyone in the comment section completely missed the point of the video

[@RikkiSan1]

Most people never watch to the end thats why

[@Kiki-bo9en]

This needs to be pinned

[@demarralrobinson2530]

Exactly

[@bigmoe9856]

I think it was during covid when the zoos were largely devoid of any human presence (besides a keeper to feed the animals) that a female panda or two was reported as successfully pregnant after who knows how many failed attempts to try before.

[@mikebean.]

I guess like most humans they dont like people watching them having relations lol

[@Marcin9200]

Finally some zoology video that shows respect for pandas, great message at the ending.

[@MrMighty147]

Man this channel is great. The ending proves, you know your stuff.

[@Myctoinology]

lol thought they were stupid too but that’s actually a great point. They didn’t start eating bamboo because it was a bad choice.

[@05Matz]

It kind of breaks my heart that "move to follow the seasonal bamboo and live in solitude with a guaranteed food source nobody else bothers with" used to be such a safe bet that such a hyper-specific build could sustain a highly successful species of BEARS of all things, but human encroachment on the required circuit of biomes has broken the build so badly that people like to pretend they're 'useless', 'genetically inferior', 'incapable of surviving on their own' or similar slander to feel good about the process of driving them extinct. Well, being a national symbol of an important cultural 'enemy' (despite being a key business partner in reality) in the nationalistic consciousness of the world's (and especially the Internet and other media sources') dominant country probably helps make them even more hate-able to the masses, but they had no say in that. Pandas are an awkward hack of an organism to a wildly unusual niche, yes, but so are humans (Have you ever thought about our feet and posture, mechanically? Or the way our skull size makes childbirth unusually dangerous?); and there's nothing fundamentally _wrong_ with pandas other than the fact that they have no ability to deal with the changes to their habitat brought by industrialized human populations.

[@kingbeelzebub]

Lol they spread bamboo seeds.. that's it. And funnily enough they're not the only ones in their environment that do. Idk i think they're cute but why were they on the verge of extinction? Early Human interface and deforestation. Solution: replant them in their environment and expand it to it's original state then reintroduce them to that environment then leave them alone. If they go extinct at that point they were never going to make it. I fear that we have overprotected them and the entire species is no longer viable to survive in the wild even under optimal conditions. They're too naturally careless and do not take care of their young. They can't even have more than one at a time.

[@SupahGeck]

I always say I wish we had another few hundred thousand years walking upright before our brains were fully developed to this point, maybe my knees and back wouldn't hurt so much all the time! Or maybe I'm just supposed to be sprinting down antelope on the African savanah for hours on end instead of sitting at a desk all day...

[@nunyobibnes7822]

Comparing the flaws in humans and pandas is like comparing the flaws of a sword and a stick. It doesn't matter one is clearly superior than the other and making it out to be that because they both have inherent flaws so that makes them equal is just rhetoric.

[@05Matz]

Ah, I see your problem! Remember: You're supposed to _jog_ the antelope to death, not sprint at it! You'll never catch it with speed alone! Take advantage of your fancy sweat-based cooling to keep the animal in constant motion until it overheats and is rendered helpless, when persistence hunting! @@SupahGeck Eh, who am I kidding, I couldn't persistence hunt a geriatric sheep. I'm a very sedentary human, just like you! On top of sweating giving us freakish jogging endurance with the right technique and training, other 'signature' human skills people tend to underrate involve the ability to throw things with accuracy and power, and a brain and set of hands capable of making a shiv (or a spear) out of pretty much anything; a trait we've adapted to do a bunch of other stuff with since. Kind of ...most of the stuff we do now comes back to the crafty murder-brain thing, actually.

[@techpriestsalok8119]

@@nunyobibnes7822 not really? Pandas flaws come from being specialized in a niche humans are destroying, humans flaws come from being bad at being humans. Our backs just aren’t built for verticality, our hips aren’t wide enough for birthing to be reasonably safe, we have a bunch more genetic issues from severe population contractions a few tens of thousands of years ago, ect. Also if humans could get all their nutrition from grass I’m not sure we would eat anything else.

[@chris-xx7lm]

Im so addicted to your "life as" series, keep it up!

[@MalO.ver1.0.x]

I was waiting for that ending and hoped that you would talk about the very big difference of wild and captive pandas. 😂 ~ lovely greetings from Austria.

[@opvokset]

Oh you guys have that very famus painter right

[@kryptontv3347]

Na servus was eine Freude dich hier zu finden. Schönen Abend noch und Habidere

[@tyb.1719]

Well played at the end there, sir.

[@rosswebster7877]

This was great!! I wad hoping you'd do a video on pandas because of the difficulties getting them to breed in captivity, but all of the bits on why pandas double down on bamboo despite all reason to the contrary are hilarious!!

[@Andre-c6z]

Finally someone says it. Pandas are just fine .Here is something i found that that is fitting to the topic and thought i repost it here. Biologist here with a PhD in endocrinology and reproduction of endangered species. I've spent most of my career working on reproduction of wild vertebrates, including the panda and 3 other bear species and dozens of other mammals. I have read all scientific papers published on panda reproduction and have published on grizzly, black and sun bears. Panda Rant Mode engaged: THERE IS NOTHING WRONG WITH THE GIANT PANDA. Wall o' text of details: • ⁠In most animal species, the female is only receptive for a few days a year. This is the NORM, not the exception, and it is humans that are by far the weird ones. In most species, there is a defined breeding season, females usually cycle only once, maybe twice, before becoming pregnant, do not cycle year round, are only receptive when ovulating and typically become pregnant on the day of ovulation. For example: elephants are receptive a grand total of 4 days a year (4 ovulatory days x 4 cycles per year), the birds I did my PhD on for exactly 2 days (and there are millions of those birds and they breed perfectly well), grizzly bears usually 1-2 day, black bears and sun bears too. In the wild this is not a problem because the female can easily find, and attract, males on that 1 day: she typically knows where the nearest males are and simply goes and seeks then out, or, the male has been monitoring her urine, knows when she's entering estrus and comes trotting on over on that 1 day, easy peasy. It's only in captivity, with artificial social environments where males must be deliberately moved around by keepers, that it becomes a problem. • ⁠Pandas did not "evolve to die". They didn't evolve to breed in captivity in little concrete boxes, is all. All the "problems" people hear about with panda breeding are problems of the captive environment and true of thousands of other wild species as well; it's just that pandas get media attention when cubs die and other species don't. Sun bears won't breed in captivity, sloth bears won't breed in captivity, leafy sea dragons won't breed in captivity, Hawaiian honeycreepers won't breed in captivity, on and on. Lots and lots of wild animals won't breed in captivity. It's particularly an issue for tropical species since they do not have rigid breeding seasons and instead tend to evaluate local conditions carefully - presence of right diet, right social partner, right denning conditions, lack of human disturbance, etc - before initiating breeding. • ⁠Pandas breed just fine in the wild. Wild female pandas produce healthy, living cubs like clockwork every two years for their entire reproductive careers (typically over a decade). • ⁠Pandas also do just fine on their diet of bamboo, since that question always comes up too. They have evolved many specializations for bamboo eating, including changes in their taste receptors, development of symbiosis with lignin-digesting gut bacteria (this is a new discovery), and an ingenious anatomical adaptation (a "thumb" made from a wrist bone) that is such a good example of evolutionary novelty that Stephen Jay Gould titled an entire book about it, The Panda's Thumb. They represent a branch of the ursid family that is in the middle of evolving some incredible adaptations (similar to the maned wolf, a canid that's also gone mostly herbivorous, rather like the panda). Far from being an evolutionary dead end, they are an incredible example of evolutionary innovation. Who knows what they might have evolved into if we hadn't ruined their home and destroyed what for millions of years had been a very reliable and abundant food source. • ⁠Yes, they have poor digestive efficiency (this always comes up too) and that is just fine because they evolved as "bulk feeders", as it's known: animals whose dietary strategy involves ingestion of mass quantities of food rather than slowly digesting smaller quantities. Other bulk feeders include equids, rabbits, elephants, baleen whales and more, and it is just fine as a dietary strategy - provided humans haven't ruined your food source, of course. • ⁠Population wise, pandas did just fine on their own too (this question also always comes up) before humans started destroying their habitat. The historical range of pandas was massive and included a gigantic swath of Asia covering thousands of miles. Genetic analyses indicate the panda population was once very large, only collapsed very recently and collapsed in 2 waves whose timing exactly corresponds to habitat destruction: the first when agriculture became widespread in China and the second corresponding to the recent deforestation of the last mountain bamboo refuges. • ⁠The panda is in trouble entirely because of humans. Honestly I think people like to repeat the "evolutionary dead end" myth to make themselves feel better: "Oh, they're pretty much supposed to go extinct, so it's not our fault." They're not "supposed" to go extinct, they were never a "dead end," and it is ENTIRELY our fault. Habitat destruction is by far their primary problem. Just like many other species in the same predicament - Borneo elephants, Amur leopard, Malayan sun bears and literally hundreds of other species that I could name - just because a species doesn't breed well in zoos doesn't mean they "evolved to die"; rather, it simply means they didn't evolve to breed in tiny concrete boxes. Zoos are extremely stressful environments with tiny exhibit space, unnatural diets, unnatural social environments, poor denning conditions and a tremendous amount of human disturbance and noise. tl;dr - It's normal among mammals for females to only be receptive a few days per years; there is nothing wrong with the panda from an evolutionary or reproductive perspective, and it's entirely our fault that they're dying out. /rant. Edit: OP did not say anything wrong but other comments were already veering into the "they're trying to die" bullshit and it pissed me off. (Sorry for the swearing - it's just so incredibly frustrating to see a perfectly good species going down like this and people just brushing them off so unjustly) Also - I am at a biology conference (talking about endangered species reproduction) and have to jump on a plane now but can answer any questions tomorrow.

[@oskarmb7435]

I aint readin’ allat

[@savvy.m]

Thanks, this was actually super helpful. I've heard a lot of misconceptions about pandas, and this helped clear some of those up!

[@eliasengler5730]

This was a great read with lots of info. It’s so sad what humanity has done to animal environments and now even so much that we are starting to affect our own habitats that we inhabit. When will we give back to not only these animals, but the world and ultimately, ourselves? Much appreciation and I hope your research continues to help these species in need 🙏

[@mozermzr3186]

Can someone DLDR this ?

[@MeCooper]

@@mozermzr3186 I dunno, Looks like somebody on the internet said they're a doctor and ended their rant with _"I have to go now, I'm at a conference and have to get on a plane"_

[@Dat1DinoGuy]

It would be cool if you made life as a dinosaur or something, like a special episode!

[@SuperCosmicMutantSquid]

While bamboo does make up the primary diet of pandas, they do occasionally eat carrion, eggs, pikas and bamboo rats but still not enough to get proper nutrition for their bodies. So they only go like a quarter on the vegan habits. XD

[@boghogthearmored5776]

Their cheeks are muscles?! You're telling me pandas work their jaws for 12hrs every day? The ultimate mewing exercise.

[@chillingwarmly5155]

"mewing"? funny, because in Chinese they are called "熊猫" meaning "bear cat"

[@Muslumankedi556]

​@@chillingwarmly5155 Mewing is not "meowing" mewing is a jaw and cheek exercise, you get your tongue to touch your gum behind your front teeth, and you do it for hours, after 1 year later your jawline becomss more straight and better.

[@rafaguelfand6615]

your cheeks also are muscles

[@gidw5833]

​@@Muslumankedi556 aaaaand it's also proven to not work (damn)

[@onetomeplz5825]

Pandas surviving of Bambo is like college students only eating pizza bites

[@Faaaaaaaam]

Please do horses. Big animals but are scared of everything that moves or doesn’t move, any weird sound is horrifying and they wont eat if the food is bad, or they will eat so much they die

[@Jamestoland]

Sounds like they have the makings of a good video 🤔

[@Oinker-Sploinker]

I saw a video of a horse eating a bird and throwing a sheep in the air, they are ruthless and have huge pp’s. Women’s best/boy friend.

[@Faaaaaaaam]

@@Oinker-Sploinker yep some horses hate other animals, i’ve seen a horse chasig a bird in it’s pasture and almost attacking small dogs🧐

[@mattias969]

The panda is the living proof of that nature always chooses the path of least resistance.

[@cee_ves]

to be fair i’d be pretty pissed off too if i was ripped from my home in the gorgeous bamboo forests of china and given to another set of almost hairless apes. like what you want me to bring another one into this?

[@K1ng_Squ1dZ]

one day you gotta do how to human

[@lemeres2478]

So, about the dead bamboo. That is bamboo- singular. That wide swath of bamboo forest that was your home was all from a single offshoot. Bamboo is just one of those mega-orgamism things. You'd think that would mean it doesn't do the whole seed thing... but no. Bamboo produces fruit once every 100 years. And unfortunately, the bamboo decides to make itself fertilizer for the next generation. Even more unfortunately, all the dead, dry bamboo is great kindling for turning every other competitor plant in the area into burnt fertilizer. This might be why your ancestors decided to just eat bamboo- since everything else had gone up in the forest fire. Normally, this would only be a minor issue, since you could just walk over to the next forest that isn't in fruit season. Unfortunately, wherever you go, you encounter those weird objects humans put... between every bamboo forest. With a much longer walk than usual to get to the next available source of bamboo. Combined with the kidnapping and the 10 year stay in the least romantic place possible, you are suddenly facing a lot of problems these days.

[@TheNashNetwork]

Now you have to do a Red Panda video to tell the story on the other side of the enclosure!

[@Jamestoland]

😂😂

[@StarGiraffinum]

I'm not one to leave requests, but PLEASE do "Your life as an Elephant" at some point in time.

[@Jamestoland]

Will do!

[@SlapstickGenius23]

@@Jamestoland yeah, I also like Asian elephants, they’re badass.

[@sasariwtf]

Why are people so mad about pandas? Theyre just animals doing their thing and living within their habitats nish. The only reason we waste so much money on them is because humans have fucked up THEIR habitat and force them to live in places they're not comfortable in.

[@Germanica1871]

ok

[@maxsmart61]

Ok

[@Oinker-Sploinker]

I guess insecure people wanna feel superior to an animal that doesn't know or care that they exist.

[@Fanowl_]

@@Oinker-Sploinker Cry harder.

[@FALIXFox]

​@@Oinker-Sploinker no it's because thousands of dollars are being wasted on these rather smooth brained bears rather than going to the homeless or people in need, it's stupid.

[@SiJullianToGuys]

So god basically made Pandas to be Giant Killing Machines, and then they just see a bunch of bamboos and said "fuck it, im a herbivore now"

[@michaelsilver253]

Red pandas are dope. Had one here at the DC zoo named Rusty who managed to ninja out of his cage a few times. Each time he got out he beelined for nearby 18th street- where a bunch of bars are. Sure it was because he was attracted to the smell of food but deep down we all knew Rusty wanted to rage

[@xXbellabyrdXx]

I’m just picturing Rusty at the McDonald’s and I’m cackling

[@rhyestripes6059]

Thank you for that last point

[@Marccoo]

Life of the dolphin would be dope.

[@samankucher5117]

dope ....and horror show .

[@IstasPumaNevada]

It looks like half the commenters didn't watch the last minute of the video.

[@boringfish]

For real. Imagine being put into a weird glass box with another panda and being told to mate infront of a bunch of gawkers. I'd never have sex, too!

[@lumptydumpty6992]

Thank you for the ending there. Certain very large channels will trash the panda and cheetah for ‘being doomed to extinction’ when it’s our fault they’re threatened. Evolution allows creatures to adapt to niches through adaptive radiation. Highly Specialized creatures needing large, continuous territory will always be the most at risk from us. Now if certain creators *cough* Tier Zoo *cough* could correct their understanding of evolutionary biology, we wouldn’t have people assuming some creatures are doomed to die out.

[@RainbowdashLT]

Alas, while other animals adapt and reducing in numbers a lot less slower, the panda is stuck in its comfort zone doomed to not adapt to the changing world. it could have been any environmental change, even something happening to the hardy bamboo would have made them go to extinction. They are doomed to extinct, because they do not adapt, just like despite for millions of years they have been eating bamboo they did not adapt to having a more efficient digestive system to get more from the plants, they only adapted to not die form the overwhelming amount of cyanide. You really can't blame the humans, because they are not suddenly going to stop reproducing like bacteria and taking all of the space for housing and agriculture. in any way, they are doomed to extinction, because they don't adapt, they never really adapted to their own diet apart to not die from it. I guess koalas are in the same waters and eating the least nutritional plant out there

[@Grimpy970]

No, no no. The animals that have successfully survived for millions of years have suddenly just decided to be bad. If they can't handle the grindset then they should just cope

[@YujiUedaFan]

Tier Zoo is a joke, since they get basic facts wrong all the time. They also clearly hate pigeons and rank them in F tier, despite how adaptive they are. As for cheetahs, they're only in the spot they're in because they're diurnal, so they get all the blame for what the big cats do at night.

[@dweebteambuilderjones7627]

It's not the panda's fault their reproductive cycles are so slow from an evolutionary standpoint.

[@derrickbonsell]

I've never really considered the reputation of pandas to be entirely deserved. If humans only lived in devastated habitats or zoos that didn't know how to take care of them properly they'd probably struggle to reproduce too. It also depends on exactly what kind of zoo you're in. Some Chinese zoos are absolutely dreadful places to be and some are actually very good at taking care of pandas.

[@glory2cybertron]

The funny thing is, pandas are much less related to other bears than humans are to chimpanzees. Let that sink in 😂

[@thatkidwiththehoodie]

Not really? They’re about as close, give or take.

[@joseberger7737]

apparently their favorite bamboo parts are built like meat with cellulose, they get the normal carnivore nutritional intake

[@yeahyeahyeah4488]

Having defended the panda, please do koala bears !!

[@Fejable]

this is the only video ive ever seen of why pandas should still exist if not only they're cute

[@kringle7804]

So basically panadas dont need help they just need space,

[@mysterionslyther5762]

I loved this video, pandas eating bamboo because of its abundance rather than more energy-demanding hunting makes some sense. Maybe they will get more adaptable with time to get all the nutrients from bamboo.

[@Virsho]

please make "you life as hooman" it will actually be really helpful

[@MonkeMan35]

You should do life of a crocodile

[@GenericDan]

That would be a fun one. Crocodilians are some of the only reptiles to exhibit parental care. In Nile crocodiles, both sexes defend the nest, and in gharials, the males do all the work.

[@GenericDan]

@Tonysopranoyafinook after 15 years lol.

[@snomle]

The panda giving us a mean look at the end was something

[@sparking023]

My take: on one hand, pandas are not making themselves any favors by eating stuff that's not very nutritional to them, so they gotta spend half of the day *consuming.* On the other hand, the encroaching of human settlements messed with their habitat, and messed with them by proxy, but they're still capable of surviving in the wild. Giant Pandas adopted the Minimum Viable Effort route lol

[@thekito4623]

i live in austria, we have the worlds oldest zoo, its really close to where i live. and some years ago everyone was really excited about the panda baby being born there (we succeeded where the usa failed:P) .... today i found out (after some google to confirm) that this austrian born panda baby is in fact "property" of the peoples republic of china ... and that its on austria on a loan ... (loan will get renewed tho so it will stay here with its family)

[@drd675]

Assuming the world's geopolitical situation doesn't continue to degrade, to where China breaks off relations and demands them all back. Which they have threatened before.

[@companymen42]

@@drd675last time an Asian country “demanded” anything, they met their sun god twice (was gonna be a third time if they didn’t capitulate)

[@lotusflowerrr]

I had no idea they have a carnivore digestive system.

[@hollie-v9h]

I understand that they have filled their own little niche and all but i can't help wondering: what would happen if a group of pandas was raised on a more omnivorous diet (think black bear and grizzly diets) from birth? Would they survive? Would they become a *new subspecies* of panda? How did the panda evolve to eat *only bamboo* when china is so bountiful in countless edible plants in every season?????

[@perhaps_not_]

they would explods

[@pochipella]

THE DRAWING IS TOOO CUTE

[@JohnSmith-hd2tl]

These videos are high quality and they get uploaded at a fast rate. The best of both worlds!

[@fixiotreeshin5809]

I’m happy KZbin recommended this channel I enjoy this series very much. Hopefully you have plans on making a honey badger video but nonetheless the work you put into these videos is amazing and you deserve your flowers .

[@killerkitty6505]

I love these “Your life as” videos. Looking at how many views they have compared to your older videos, I can see that you’re going to gain a lot of popularity for them. I can’t wait to see more :)

[@Jamestoland]

Thank you! Glad you like them!

[@Blazdragon34]

Komodo dragons next please

[@skunkrat01]

Omfg that ending got me bad

[@lamebubblesflysohigh]

It would be interesting to try switch their diet to something like berries and occasional meat and see what happens

[@glory2cybertron]

Yes zookeepers think pandas can or want to eat only bamboo. It's like aliens assuming humans only eat bread or rice because that's what you typically see humans eat. However, pandas don't like meat because their umani receptor is defunct.

[@frogglen6350]

I like how the narrator sounds disappointed when they didn't mate for years. Imagine spending millions on an animal that won't re populate under stress 😅

[@shredead]

Before watching this I thought pandas were one of the few species trying to get fired from their job at the evolution factory

[@plfaproductions]

Getting fired is called extinction lol

[@tikimillie]

Female pandas are actually in heat longer in the wild