A Study published in Science pieces together the mystery of the panda — they’re large, but not in charge.  They have evolved — between 7 million and 2 million years ago — to eat bamboo, a substance with little nutrition and difficult — and slow — to digest, even though their digestive system resembles that of a carnivore and isn’t well adapted to plant food.  And according to John McQuaid, writing in Forbes, the panda’s fate in life has lessons for all of us.

Pandas don’t do much, either in the wild, nor in captivity, according to study, which involved a team from China with a member from Scotland.  The team found the energy expenditure for pandas far less  that what they expected for a mammal of comparable size  — 37.5% for those in captivity, and 45% for those in the wild..

Furthermore, they found very low levels of the thyroid hormones T3 (trilodothronine) and T4 (thyroxine)  — nearly 47% for those in captivity, and 64% for those in the wild.  The team speculates a mutation in the DUOX2 gene might explain the hormone differences.

The authors indicate the Pandas brain, liver, and kidney are small in comparison to other bears.   A key question is which came first?  The dietary choices, and then the downgraded metabolism and body changes?

McQuaid points out that pandas have become adapted to just “sitting around” due to their low energy inputs, but that humans have another choice.  We need energy for our bigger brains, we need to move around, and we need a diet richer in energy and micronutrients.  Otherwise, perhaps we become a world full of pandas.