ill-adapted

This could affect the bird's ability to survive in tidal marshes, where it subsists on saltwater and salty crustaceans, something freshwater birds are ill-adapted to.

Human eyes, honed by evolution to survive in the wild, are ill-adapted to city living, contributing to increased cases of myopia, among other factors.

“Pandas and royal persons alike,” wrote Hilary Mantel in 2013, “are expensive to conserve and ill-adapted to any modern environment. But aren’t they interesting? Aren’t they nice to look at? Some people find them endearing; some pity them for their precarious situation; everybody stares at them, and however airy the enclosure they inhabit, it’s still a cage.”

He cited a well-known 2013 essay in the London Review of Books by the historical novelist Hilary Mantel, in which she compared the royal family to pandas — “expensive to conserve and ill-adapted to any modern environment” — but he did not identify either Ms. Mantel or the publication.

Beyond border red tape, the smooth deployment of forces is also often hindered by ill-adapted infrastructure, like roads and bridges unable to handle heavy vehicles and tanks, airstrips too short for certain kinds of warplanes and ports too shallow to allow some ships to dock.