Giant pandas may be nearing extinction because of messed up microbiomes

[alex revision]

Giant pandas may be nearing extinction because of messed up microbiomes

Sexy times and pregnancy are difficult when you have gastrointestinal distress.

For giant pandas, there’s nothing like having friends in low places. The bears rely on chummy relations with their gut microbes to extract nutrients from their vegetarian diet, but an annual switch from noshing bamboo stalks to leaves can plunge the pandas' gut microbes into disarray. According to a study of panda poop, this switch potentially causes one grizzly problem.

http://arstechnica.com/science/2016/...p-microbiomes/