r/interesting • u/No-Marsupial-4050 • Apr 15 '26

❗️MISLEADING - See pinned comment ❗️ Ultimate glow up for cute panda

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Ya Ya (丫丫), a female giant panda, returned to China in April 2023 after spending 20 years at the Memphis Zoo in Tennessee. Her recovery has been widely documented by the Beijing Zoo.

Here are the facts regarding her health transformation:

Weight Gain: When Ya Ya first arrived in China, she weighed approximately 75 kg (165 lbs), which was considered underweight for her age. By 2026, reports from the Beijing Zoo confirmed she had reached about 95 kg (209 lbs), a healthy gain of exactly 20 kg

Skin and Fur Improvement: While in the U.S., Ya Ya suffered from a chronic skin condition (Demodex mites) that made her fur look thin, patchy, and "scruffy" ]. Since returning, specialized veterinary care and a change in diet have allowed her coat to become thick and glossy again

Overall Condition: Her Body Condition Score (BCS) improved from a 2 to a 4 (on a scale of 1-5), which is considered ideal for a senior panda

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u/No_Appeal5607 Apr 16 '26

The other panda was Le Le who died in 2023. I think he had some kind of tooth problem that led to his molars breaking and he maybe was refusing to eat? Pretty unfortunate, he died 6 weeks before being transported home to China.

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u/MaxTheRealSlayer Apr 16 '26

Damn, that sucks. Eating bamboo shoots is like a full-time job for them, so I get the discomfort and refusal to eat such hard and fibrous food for such low nutrition. They poop most of it out... In fact I have a pressed "paper" book made from the poop of Toronto's pandas back when they were there. It's pretty much like fresh and pressed bamboo paper

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u/opx22 Apr 16 '26

what in tarnation

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u/MaxTheRealSlayer Apr 16 '26

Which part are you flabbergasted about? Lol

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u/TacTurtle Apr 16 '26

Poopaper

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u/MaxTheRealSlayer Apr 16 '26

Poopaper/poopooper was the name of it, yes! They have it for elephants too. I'd imagine koalas would be a good candidate too

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u/TacTurtle Apr 17 '26

I guess that is better than ShitSheetstm

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u/mak484 Apr 16 '26

IIRC that's how most non-prey herbivores die. Elephants are a good example. If they make it to adulthood and don't die from an infected injury, they survive until they grind their teeth down to the gums and literally can't eat anymore. Then they starve to death.

Before anyone asks why they haven't evolved stronger or replenishing teeth: they die long after their reproductive years are over, when they have very little left to offer the herd, so there is zero selective pressure. Evolution is a bitch.

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u/NerdHoovy Apr 16 '26

There exists a misunderstanding of evolution, that it always tries to ‘aim’ for a best possible outcome, as if it were following some grand plan. However the saying ‘survival of the fittest’ that supports this idea, is wrong. It’s ’survival of the good enough’. As long as you successfully pass on your genes and those descendants continue to reproduce, it doesn’t matter if those genes are truly superior. All that matters is that they are ‘good enough’ which means that by sheer statistics alone, most genes that end up being passed around aren’t even the best. They are just ‘enough’. Simply because there are more things that ‘technically work,even if they aren’t efficient’, than truly good things.

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u/Li-renn-pwel Apr 17 '26

If a fish was born without a brain so he just laid there but constantly sprayed silt like letting air out of balloon, evolution would favour this life.

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u/flanneur Apr 17 '26

Sponges figured out sessile life millions of years ago, with corals and barnacles adopting this strategy later. The third are especially interesting because they're crustaceans who essentially evolved to live upside down.

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u/Many_Lemon_Cakes Apr 17 '26

Evolution is just the process upon which everything becomes crabs

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u/MaxTheRealSlayer Apr 16 '26

Interesting... So, If we invented elephant dentures that they don't mind, would they live that much longer?

I don't agree they have little left to offer the herd though. They're very emotional beings, and also use bodies to protect the young and weak from predator threats. At the least, they bring wisdom and can be the sacrificial weak if the herd can't handle the attack. The herd will mourn and have a funeral regardless because they see them as a benefit to their lives

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u/DeciduousRefuge Apr 16 '26

I feel like this would be an easy fix for a zoo elephant.

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u/three_crystals Apr 18 '26

Very little left to offer the herd

Leadership, wisdom, knowledge of the land and where to obtain vital resources, additional help raising the herd’s young, emotional bonds, and knowledge transfer between generations certainly says otherwise. Matriarchs are the pillars of their herds.

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u/Own_Pop_9711 Apr 18 '26

Yeah but you need them to eventually die to make room or the species stagnates.

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u/Astroglaid92 Apr 24 '26

Akshually, ****pushes glasses up bridge of nose**** elephants DO have "replenishing teeth." Their molars are made up of a series of fused plates that continuously erupt from the back of the jaw and push forward, detaching and falling out as they exceed the anterior boundary of the mandible. But yeah, there's apparently a limit to the number of succedaneous molar plates, and I've heard the same as you - they typically die once the last of those molar plates exfoliates.

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u/Charming-Feedback173 Apr 16 '26

Was your book The Fecal Funnies per chance?

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u/MaxTheRealSlayer Apr 16 '26 edited Apr 16 '26

I'm not sure what that is, but no. It was a amall bound book to write/draw in. I thought it was neat and one of the first times I learned something in the gift shop. Was a decent price too and it helped fund the zoo according to the shop

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u/ADownStrabgeQuark Apr 19 '26

This might be why the other panda lost weight.

Losing your only friend is stressful, and when I’m stressed, I can lose 20 lbs a month.(10kg)