00:00Everyone who sees a panda eating bamboo assumes it chose this diet because it likes it.
00:04But the real story is more complex and stranger than that.
00:08The giant panda, taxonomically speaking, is fully a carnivore.
00:12Its digestive system is short and simple like other bears,
00:16originally designed to digest meat, not plant fiber.
00:20But around 4 million years ago, a genetic mutation disabled the panda's taste
00:25receptors responsible for umami flavor.
00:28The taste that draws animals toward meat.
00:30That means the panda actually lost its innate desire for meat at the genetic level,
00:35while its body stayed the same.
00:37The result, an animal shaped like a carnivore, yet living 99% of its diet on bamboo,
00:44which is extremely low in energy, and its digestive system can only extract about 17%
00:50of its actual nutritional value.
00:52So it's not that the panda chose bamboo because it was the best option.
00:55It got stuck with it after losing the genetic tool that would have made it crave anything else.
01:01So, have you heard before about an animal forced into a diet by a genetic defect rather than choice?
01:07Share with me.
Comments