Build a Tiki Bar -Kill a Panda!!!!

ok, maybe not....
"Bamboo Shortage Threatens Pandas in China

Mon Mar 28,12:01 PM ET Science - AP

By CHRISTOPHER BODEEN, Associated Press Writer

SHANGHAI, China - Giant pandas in western China could be at risk of starvation because the bamboo plants that they eat are beginning to die off in a cycle that happens about every 60 years, the official Xinhua News Agency reported Sunday.

Reuters
Slideshow: Panda Bears

Workers at the Baishuijiang State Nature Preserve in the northwestern province of Gansu plan to monitor the 102 pandas in the preserve for signs of hunger, according to Xinhua.

Threatened pandas will be moved to areas that still have bamboo, with special attention given to older, feeble animals, it said, citing Zhang Kerong, the preserve's director.

Pandas derive most of their nutrition from arrow bamboo and can starve once the plant enters its dying-off stage. The stage begins when the bamboo forms flowers, after which the pandas refuse to eat it. The bamboo then starts to produce seeds before dying.

Blooming happens about once every 60 years, with a new crop taking 10 years to mature. However, the cycle seems to run along different schedules in different places and an earlier mass die-off of bamboo in the 1980s caused the deaths of about 250 pandas, Xinhua said.

Xinhua said some bamboo also has started blooming in Sichuan and Shaanxi provinces, home to the rest of China's estimated 1,590 wild pandas.

Flowering bamboo now covers more than 17,300 acres of the 544,000-acre preserve, Xinhua said. It said 22 pandas living in the preserve's Bikou and Rangshuihe areas were directly threatened with starvation.

Zhang said rangers would patrol for ailing animals and rescue those in need. Local villagers also have been told not to drive away or harm pandas if they enter inhabited areas looking for food.

China regards the panda as an unofficial national mascot, but the animal's limited diet is just one factor threatening its survival. Panda numbers have declined as its habitat has fallen to farming and development, and the animal's low fertility rate causes it to reproduce at an agonizingly slow rate.

Chinese zoologists have improved the birth rate of giant pandas in captivity through artificial insemination. The country also has launched a project to clone the animal as a way of boosting its numbers."

Well, I know the bamboo and thatching place I am using states the bamboo is grown in Mexico (big surprise there). So at least the tiki loving people of the US don't have to feel bad for building our bamboo huts and bars, lol!

:drink:

Jason Wathey
Tampa, Florida

http://www.wathey.com

[ Edited by: Jawa on 2005-03-28 13:02 ]

On 2005-03-28 13:01, Jawa wrote:
Well, I know the bamboo and thatching place I am using states the bamboo is grown in Mexico (big surprise there). So at least the tiki loving people of the US don't have to feel bad for building our bamboo huts and bars, lol!

:drink:

---

Jason Wathey
Tampa, Florida

http://www.wathey.com

--my point EXACTLY!! We all built our bars and now there are no more wild Pandas in Mexico!!!

:lol:

Well, yes, but it was the mexican wild pandas that helped bring about the decline of the mai tai in favor of the margarita.

Ahu

Interesting and insightful but this sounds like beyond tiki or bilge.

On 2005-03-28 16:14, Monkeyman wrote:
Interesting and insightful but this sounds like beyond tiki or bilge.

Thanks for pointing out something I already considered. My thought process before I posted this;(1)Bamboo is heavily used in a nicely decorated tiki bar so therefore is relevent in the Main forum. (2)The fact that I was posting it more for humor than as a real problem for us tiki folk makes it more relevent in "Beyond Tiki" or "Bilge". So I decided to post it in the Main Forum for a greater effect and becaue I just thought a little Monday morning merriment might be enjoyed by the masses.
Of course those are my thoughts/opinions and sometimes I can actually be WRONG! :) Thank you for your suggestion-you didn't know that I already considered it. Good thing I am not a moderator.

Good point, Mr. Smiley.

However, is all bamboo from China or is any harvested more locally?

I'm also afraid the panda problem is larger than tiki bars, but the development of China, deforstation and the need for increased agricultuaral lands.

Two of the primary Panda restoration projects are wildlife corridors, to link bamboo feeding areas and a 1998 law which attempts to prevent logging.

In 2002, the Chinese government nearly doubled the protected areas for giant pandas in the Qinling mountain range by creating five new panda reserves and committing to create five new wildlife corridors in the area. This initiative increased protected areas for pandas in Qinling from 455,000 acres to more than 825,000 acres, in addition to the five corridors.

Wildlife corridors are a key tool to save giant pandas. Because human land use has restricted many populations of pandas to less than 50 individuals, it is essential to re-link habitat if the threat of inbreeding is to be reduced. By creating forested pathways that connect patches of habitat where pandas live, we enable the animals to migrate from one area to another - crucial for meeting mates and finding fresh food supplies. Where there are no corridors, pandas are cut off from one another by highways, farms, cities and other human development. The corridors are expected to be complete by 2005.

Additionally, a new forest protection program launched by the government in 1998 includes a widespread ban on logging by which virtually all panda habitat is now off limits to timber harvesting. A related measure calls for reforesting former farmland on steep slopes.

http://worldwildlife.org/pandas/results/results1.cfm

On 2005-03-28 16:48, mrsmiley wrote:

On 2005-03-28 16:14, Monkeyman wrote:
Interesting and insightful but this sounds like beyond tiki or bilge.

Thanks for pointing out something I already considered. My thought process before I posted this;(1)Bamboo is heavily used in a nicely decorated tiki bar so therefore is relevent in the Main forum. (2)The fact that I was posting it more for humor than as a real problem for us tiki folk makes it more relevent in "Beyond Tiki" or "Bilge".

. . .
Good thing I am not a moderator.

While technically correct, I do think if there are any underlying issues regarding tiki, whether environmental (pandas & bamboo), political (resort hotel opening in Akena Beach in Easter Island or historical (whether the Bishop Museum should return the bones of anceint Hawaiians for a traditional burial, or place them on display) are worthy of comment.

However, that's my personal opinion - a moderator easily might have a different one.

...and to think I was gonna send Mr. Smiley a freebie Bamboo Ben Bar this week. Doh! Scratch him off the list!

On 2005-03-28 20:55, RevBambooBen wrote:
...and to think I was gonna send Mr. Smiley a freebie Bamboo Ben Bar this week. Doh! Scratch him off the list!

DANG!!! Maybe Monkeyman will give me one of his cool frames (they are fantastic!) . Carve a tree, save a Panda -but kill a Mockingbird! (I guess one just can't win!)

Cool--I could cross two things off my list of "must do before I die" at once... build a tiki bar AND kill a panda! Seriously, Panda's are cute as hell, but dumb as hell. Most of the time we have to show them panda porn to get them to do it in the zoo. Of course maybe being in the zoo is the problem, or maybe it's time we let Darwin's little "survival of the fittest" run it's course.

Okay, I apologize for being so anti-environmental. I'll go donate to the WWF now. Maybe that would be a cool think for tiki central to do, donate to WWF and explain the reason... nice publicity!

.......maybe a whole lotta panda skin bar stools showing up in tiki bars soon,......
emanciated, feeble looking, bar stool upholstery.
Oh Yummmmy.

On 2005-03-30 08:00, Rorysm wrote:

I'll go donate to the WWF now.

I didn't know pandas were allowed in the World Wrestling Federation.

On 2005-03-28 12:22, mrsmiley wrote:

Pandas derive most of their nutrition from arrow bamboo

Tiki Bars eat Moso, Farm Grown! Not Arrow.

Over 1200 species of Bamboo in the world. This is a natural occurance and has nothing to do with farming.

I'd worry more about the plastics from all those "smiley faces" washing into the ocean and killing Dolphins, Seals, Pelicans,etc.

I have a bad feeling that killing all those pandas for "McTiki" pandaburgers has only made this tragic situation worse.

Eating bamboo?, no wonder they have a hard time getting wood!.Take a panda to in and out burgers and watch the magic.Or we could just let them eat cake.

Or Pie.