Lilac-Breasted Rollers
We’ll start out with the good, this bird is beautiful. So beautiful, in fact, that it’s the national bird of Kenya. They’re also very brave, but this is where they venture into stupid-territory. These birds don’t fear humans or other large predators the same way other birds do. And that would be great if they were, say, the size of vultures. But they’re not.
They are at most 38 centimeters long and weigh just over 100 grams. Meaning that they are very easy prey for any creature that is braver than them, which, as you can imagine, is a lot of creatures.
Koalas
These Australian mascots are great, don’t get us wrong. But they do have the smallest brain-to-body ratio of any animal, making up a mere 0.2% of their body weight. How does this practically show up? Well, they have to sleep for up to 20 hours a day, and their diet is primarily eucalyptus leaves, which have very little nutritional value.
The end of their lives gets fairly grim, so we won’t get into that, but sufficed to say that a diet consisting of leaves that really need to be chewed well in order to extract nutrients is not so conducive to animals that suffer from tooth decay.
Giant Pandas
You had to see this one coming. It’s a miracle that these guys are still around. No, really, the majority of this creature’s current existence is thanks to endless breeding efforts by sanctuaries. Almost two-thirds of all wild Giant Pandas live in conservation sanctuaries, and while they are no longer considered endangered (woohoo!), they aren’t far away from it.
One major problem is the fact that they need to consume copious amounts of bamboo, which offers a bewilderingly low amount of nutrients. This is especially true for animals that have the digestive system of carnivores.
It’s Not All Bad News
Listen, we may have ragged on your favorite animal here, but it’s purely scientific. These animals have lots of redeeming qualities, and maybe they’re smarter than we give them credit for. Well, maybe not the pandas.