The only reason pandas can subsist on bamboo is because they're so incredibly lazy

Scientists have already told us giant pandas spend so much of their day hanging out eating bamboo, a food they can barely digest. Now, a new study published in Science on Friday sheds more light on how exactly they manage to survive on that diet.

Turns out, there's an easy answer: Giant pandas hardly move. The sample size is small, but the wild pandas researchers studied spent about one-half of the time physically active, compared to just one-third for their captive counterparts.

"Giant pandas have exceptionally low [daily energy expenditure], which may facilitate survival on their diet of bamboo," the authors wrote.

The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

Join more than 350,000 subscribers and keep yourself informed with a selection of The Week’s most interesting, enlightening and entertaining stories - plus daily puzzles.

Join more than 350,000 subscribers and keep yourself informed with a selection of The Week’s most interesting, enlightening and entertaining stories - plus daily puzzles.

Sign up

Aside from sitting around all day, researchers wrote factors like their low thyroid levels and small brains, livers, and kidneys make them low-energy. Presumably, they spend their oodles of downtime watching Netflix.