A sunburnt Panda! Although neither of the two Giant Pandas moving to Edinburgh Zoo will have to worry about sunburn.
My little sisters favorite things in the whole world are Pandas. When she was little and asked where she wanted to go on family days out her answer was inevitably 'the zoo', and she would wile away hours in front of their cage talking to Ming-Ming (who was later sent away in disgrace after fighting with her mate). Although, my sister isn’t the only person afflicted by Panda fever, everybody loves Pandas and the Sneezing Panda was one of the most watched videos on YouTube. So what is it that makes these animals so cute?
In 1973 Nobel Prize winner Konrad Lorenz, a zoologist, put quantitative measurements on ‘cuteness’. He listed several infantile traits such as small body size, a disproportionately large head, large eyes, playfulness and curiosity. It’s easy to see that a wide eyed panda, rolling around whilst chewing his bamboo shoot with his funny human-like thumb (which is in fact an adapted wrist bone) would fit all of these traits.
These childlike features trigger a nurturing response in people so they respond more positively to animals that look like babies. It’s not restricted to people either, think about all those stories of gorillas adopting kitten and hippos adopting tortoises. Small cute things appear vulnerable and helpless so we want to adopt them. It’s an evolutionary trick, which has been in use for millenia. The recent find of a baby Triceratops skull with an overly large skull shows even ancient species knew the benefits of being a cutie-pie.
Although, I think the biggest reasons we like pandas is just that they are out right funny, with their black eyes they look like they smudged their make up from the night before and haven’t slept in a week, whilst their endangered nature make them the underdog we all love to help out.
With their guaranteed cute appeal it looks like Tian Tian and Yangguang will be welcomed with open arms to Edinburgh Zoo.
Facts about Pandas:
The giant panda is listed as endangered in the World Conservation Union's (IUCN's) Red List of Threatened Animals. It is one of the most critically endangered species in the world. There are about 1,000 left in the wild.
The Wolong Giant Panda Reserve is the world’s largest panda reserve and research institution. It is also the world’s largest breeding base and panda sperm bank.
I love this article! It is so you! It's funny because this weekend I watched a sort of documentary on dogs and how they've become domesticated. One of the things it said is that we feel the need to nurture them as they look like babies. The Oxytocin hormone is released when in physical contact with them, creating a bond between us and dogs.
ReplyDeleteGreat Article! :)