The lifestyle that we see in pandas is quite enviable to many of us as all they do is eat and laze around in places. So basically all they do is eat and relax all day long.
They once had been hardcore carnivores but their ancestors made a gradual switch to an all-bamboo diet which started somewhere between 7 million to 2 million years ago. The contemporary nutritional summary of bamboo is as diverse as it could get from the meat-loving pandas. Meat is dense in energy and a little of it goes a long way whereas bamboo just cannot be considered as a nutritious diet as they are locked-up in a cellulose which is very difficult to digest.
A little more has been known of the panda lifestyle by a new study published in the journal Science about the “Exceptionally low daily expenditure in the bamboo-eating giant panda”.
The giant pandas actually have a digestive system designed for a carnivore and yet their food habits are herbivorous. And for herbivores, one would expect a more active lifestyle, but these cuddly pandas are immeasurably lazy.
A team of scientists from China along with another one from Scotland have thoroughly analyzed the hourly behavior of 3 wild and 5 captive pandas.
Researchers found out that pandas consume only 38% of energy needed for other animals of similar size, only 5.2 megajoules (MJ) instead of the predicted 13.8 MJ. This means that a 200 lbs panda needs less than half energy than a human with the same weight. All the while to fulfill nutrient needs, pandas eat heaping quantities of bamboo, anywhere from 20 lbs to 40 lbs per day. They don’t, actually more likely they can’t get much energy from their diet and they also have significantly low metabolism.
This is makes is very evident that pandas spend a majority of their time lounging around. They actually have been physically active half of their time in the wild whereas in captivity, they have only been one-third of that. Their purpose of moving around is to obtain food, but other than that, they do not carry out much physical tasks.
Humans these days are no different than modern-day pandas. Back in the days our ancestors worked hard to maintain their lifestyles, our present lifestyle are very dependent on technology and machineries so we barely need to move around too much. The same applies for pandas, they have settled for bamboos that are quickly available for them and make them less energetic so they just roll around in grass while surviving on that diet.
Humans have much bigger brains so they naturally consume a lot of energy and their upright bodies are made for locomotion and biologically they require a much richer diet of a wide range of nutrients from various sources, unlike woody grasses that bamboos are.
There are numerous evidences supporting how essential it is to move around and how sitting around is detrimental to health. Pandas are adapted to sitting around and they actually cannot move around more than they already do. Humans on the other hand, have a choice.
