Quote from: zpyderConservation is a bit cut throat, poor old David Bellamy pretty much disappeared after deciding to voice his opinion that climate change wasnt real ><

Err he stuck his oar in and got politically lynched for getting it wrong.

As to the panda, the problem is numbers of people, disturbance and destruction of habitat, not the animal ability to survive.

There might be good reasons behind his statement but if we give up on the panda why bother saving the others? We will doubtlessly do an equally bad job there too.

You could argue the Pandas ability to survive in a habitat effected by humans is sub-standard. Yes if left alone itll be fine, but face it, it wont be left alone, the habitats they can still be found in will continue to be infested by people and their population will decline and they will become extinct.

Packham has actually voiced the opinion of most ecologists I know, yes none of us want to see any species go extinct, especially because of us, but at the same time most people in the non public-charity aspect of conservation and ecology feel that flagship species divert a lot of money that would be better spent on other conservation issues.