Letter: Letters: Protect the panda

From THOMAS G. FEWER

I disagree with Derek Ager’s opinion (Forum, 1 June) that pandas should
be left to die out. Though their extinction might be inevitable were it
not for the protection given them by humans, abandonment would waste all
our earlier efforts to save them, and would also set a dangerous precedent
for other threatened species.

Environmentally detrimental companies, such as those active in tropical
rainforests and European peat bogs, could then continue their destructive
exploitation unchecked on the basis that the many species they would wipe
out were almost extinct anyway.

It is true that many types of animals and plants died out in the past
to be replaced by new ones. But in this century of ecological holocaust,
what new species have replaced the old ones? Most likely only humans, their
domesticates, and their pests (eg rats) who have expanded their lebensraum
at the expense of other organisms.

That most mammals arose after the extinction of the dinosaurs does not
preclude the possibility that our furry ancestors could have evolved alongside
these giant reptiles. Dinosaurs were wonderful creatures. So is the panda,
as Derek Ager has shown by outlining their massive number of evolutionary
drawbacks. Of course, it is easy for one species with an extensive range
of habitats to denigrate or dismiss another on the basis of its restriction
to just one habitat.

We were not around to save the dinosaurs, but we can help the panda.

Thomas G. Fewer County Waterford Eire