It's also true that female pandas will only mate during a 36-hour window each year.

In the wild, they might have several partners in that period. In captivity, zoos are using artificial insemination to replicate those breeding opportunities.

Some ecologists have argued that pandas are already doomed to extinction because their limited diet makes it impossible for them to adapt.

Optimists say they've already survived for eight million years - considerably longer than humans.

They can change their diet. Pandas in captivity have a much wider variety in their diet.

They've survived for 8 million years but that still feels like a happy accident.

They're an evolutionary anomaly.

Or perhaps proof that there is a god.

They're just so darn adorable!!

Proof of intelligent design?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Of_Pandas_and_People