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> And apparently some Panda in a reserve wont be fed according to the news.

I think you misheard. The panda web camera feed will be shut down. Pretty sure they'll still feed the little critter... http://jezebel.com/government-shutdown-might-kill-an-adorabl...

It's also economically in our best interest to keep feeding the pandas.

We're contractually obliged to China to feed pandas in the National Zoo — if a panda dies due to American misconduct, we have to pay them $800,000. See http://qr.ae/N5H14 // http://web.mit.edu/mherdeg/Public/smithsonian-panda-agreemen... .

I'm not sure how feeding the other zoo animals would qualify as "essential", but for pandas there are diplomatic (and monetary!) concerns.

Wow. Thanks for the detailed information!